When the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee held a hearing on the U.S.-Japan mini-deal, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative declined to send anyone to testify. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., one of the biggest boosters of free trade in the Democratic caucus, said that absence represents “the disdain the current administration has" for Congress, and its role in setting trade policy. He predicted that "this will have serious ramifications for the next time" Congress has a vote on fast-track authority.
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.
House Democrats and the administration have gotten close enough on what the edits to the new NAFTA should be that they have narrowed differences to three, “maybe two and a half," the Ways and Means Committee chairman said Nov. 21. Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., had just exited a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Neal said that at the beginning of the meeting, there were five issues separating them.
If President Donald Trump signs the bill that passed the Senate unanimously Nov. 19 and passed the House 417-1 on Nov. 20, the secretary of state will have to certify within 180 days whether Hong Kong continues to warrant special treatment under U.S. law because of its special status under Chinese rule. It also requires a report by that date on whether items exported to Hong Kong that are on export controls lists are being transshipped.
The trade war that President Donald Trump began with China 16 months ago is creating pain for businesses, but there's a deeper strategic mistake to consider, said Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for Asian economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Goodman, who was speaking during the first session in a Congressional Trade Series on Nov. 19, said, “I still don't know what the basic strategic goal is here." He said he didn't know whether the administration wants to get structural changes to China's economy, as it claims, or whether it wants to reduce the bilateral trade deficit, or to contain China's rise.
Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, the National Taxpayers Union and 16 other groups sent a letter Nov. 15 to every member of Congress urging them to reject pension reform legislation that has been talked about as a possible companion to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement implementing bill (see 1910160054). "Attaching any of them to other legislation, from must-pass appropriations to the USMCA trade agreement, is unacceptable," the groups said.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., who leads the working group negotiating with the U.S. trade representative over the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, said he anticipates that USTR Robert Lighthizer will send over text of the changes to the agreement next week. Neal said he spoke with Lighthizer Nov. 14, to tell him he'd be forwarding “a series of, we think, could be make-or-break issues, and that we hoped that he would digest them and then respond to us, fast."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that a resolution to the negotiations between the Democrats in the working group and the Trump administration on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is “imminent," and that she believes it can be a template for future trade agreements. Pelosi, D-Calif., who was speaking at her weekly press conference on Nov. 14, suggested that the AFL-CIO would not argue against a "yes" vote for the NAFTA rewrite. "I think we'll see what the implementation is, and the enforcement is, and I think it will be a value that is shared by our friends in labor as well as the Democrats in Congress," she said.
Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer said he doesn't know if they'll to be able to evaluate the details of the U.S.-Japan skinny trade deal in the hearing scheduled for next week, because the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has not released the text yet. He said in a Nov. 13 interview it's “troubling" that the House Ways and Means Committee has not received text of the deal, which was signed Sept. 26. "Sometimes dealing with USTR can be a little opaque, which is one of my constants through several administrations," he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Export-Import Bank renewal a very important piece of legislation, at her press conference Nov. 14, and said it shouldn't be a bill that divides the two parties. However, The United States Export Finance Agency Act of 2019, which reauthorizes the Ex-Im Bank for 10 years, passed out of committee with no Republican support.
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.