The Commerce Department is slated to take over export control responsibility from the State Department, which would mean Congress would no longer be notified when there are sales of more than $1 million to foreign governments. The final rule is ready for implementation, but Congress could stop it if there's a joint resolution under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to reverse agency rules.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
NEW YORK -- Moises Kalach, leader of the Mexican Coalition for USMCA and vice president of a textile conglomerate in Mexico, said his organization has met with 172 House offices and 30 Senate offices, and has particularly targeted 94 House Democrats -- from border states, moderates, Hispanics, pro-free trade, or on the Ways and Means Committee (many members fit more than one category).
NEW YORK -- The U.S. and China are intertwined, and revealing how deeply that is true is the silver lining of the trade war, according to Dr. Huiyao Wang, president for Center for China and Globalization, a Chinese think tank. Wang said the West mischaracterizes forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft and favoritism toward Chinese companies within China. He said that the American Chamber of Commerce in China is pleased about how the new IP protection law is going to be implemented, and he asked if forced technology transfer is such a burden, why don't you hear companies publicly complaining about it.
NEW YORK -- A former WTO appellate body panelist criticized the administration's trade policies as chaotic and ineffective and former U.S. Trade Representative General Counsel Stephen Vaughn defended them, while a top WTO official tried to see the good in both arguments. They were all speaking on the state of world trade at an International Trade Symposium co-sponsored by Finastra and The Economist on Nov. 6.
The World Trade Organization cannot negotiate trade liberalization, and trade distorting agricultural subsidies are getting worse, not better, said Aluisio de Lima-Campos, chairman of the ABCI Institute, the Portuguese acronym for Brazilian International Trade Scholars. He was leading a panel Nov. 5 at American University, the end of a daylong trade symposium co-sponsored by ABCI.
One panelist said it will take 20 years to know who are the winners and losers of today's tariffs and export restrictions. Another panelist said U.S. factory workers making washing machines and solar panels are clearly winning from the safeguards launched nearly two years ago, as are Vietnam and Mexico. Another panelist said Vietnam and Thailand, and Mexico to a much lesser degree. As moderator Lucas Queiroz Piers said, “It is a confusing moment." The Alston & Bird legal consultant was coordinating a panel called "U.S. Sanctions and Trade War: Winners and Losers," at an American University Washington School of Law International Trade Symposium on Nov. 5.
The U.S. and Brazil cannot achieve a traditional free trade agreement, because Brazil is a party to Mercosur, a regional customs union -- even if the long-term participation in Mercosur is in question. But Renata Vasconcellos, senior policy director Brazil-U.S. Business Council, said her group “fully supports" what she called a "non-traditional trade agreement." Vasconcellos was one of many panelists speaking at American University Nov. 5 at an International Trade Symposium focused on Brazilian issues. "I’m concerned about the closing of this window. Let’s take what we can get now," she said.
Because the U.S. did not fix antidumping calculation methods after it lost a case in 2017 regarding 25 Chinese products, China will soon be authorized to levy tariffs on about $3.58 billion in U.S. goods, the World Trade Organization announced Nov. 1. China will have to formally request the right to retaliate at the next Dispute Settlement Body meeting, scheduled for Nov. 22.
A variety of export subsidies, which allowed certain industries to avoid paying sales taxes, customs duties, or reduce income tax liability have been ruled illegal by a World Trade Organization panel. The ruling was released Oct. 31. India, unless it appeals the ruling, has 90, 120 or 180 days to stop the programs at issue.
A Turkey sanctions bill passed 403-16 on Oct. 29 in the House of Representatives, despite Turkey's decision to stop shelling a part of Syria near its border. The bill requires the government to impose financial sanctions on Halkbank, a Turkish-owned bank involved in Iranian sanctions evasions, which also employed a client of the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.