The House-Senate compromise defense bill does not include the Inform Consumers Act, an amendment that was part of the Senate bill, which would have required that high-volume sellers online be identified and reachable. Trade groups that represent intellectual property rights holders had hoped that the bill would become law this year since it had been part of a different House package and was in the Senate bill (see 2210260087).
The House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee will hold a hearing Dec. 14 on Promoting Sustainable Environmental Practices Through Trade Policy, beginning at 9:30 a.m. No witnesses have been announced.
Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., speaking at an event hosted by Punchbowl News, asserted he will be the next chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, not Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla.
While it's not yet clear if Democrats and Republicans can agree on whether the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill will advance this month, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., says he's not for the proposal to offer a partial refund while importers wait for GSP renewal. The preferences program will have been expired for two years if it does not get renewed this month. He said, "We had a nice conversation with [U.S. Trade Representative] Katherine Tai this morning. We know [renewal] should happen, and we hope it does."
Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced a bill that would refund tariffs on imports that were hit with 25% tariffs during the Airbus-Boeing dispute, and also would prevent tariffs from being applied to goods on the water in the future.
Lawmakers applauded a recently approved Federal Communications Commission order that bars the importation and sale of any new telecommunications equipment listed on the FCC’s “Covered List,” which currently includes products from Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision and Dahua.
A report from Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee in Congress said that while the Federal Reserve is doing the right thing to drive down inflation, Congress should act to remove Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, and Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. "These 2018-2020 era tariffs are currently in effect on $280 billion of U.S. imports, imposing a $50 billion annual cost burden on U.S. producers and consumers that use imported goods. Estimates suggest that removing recently imposed tariffs on imports from China, steel and aluminum imports, and Canadian lumber imports could deliver a one-time inflation reduction of 1.3 percentage point," the report said. There is no mechanism for Congress to roll back the softwood lumber duties, as they are antidumping and countervailing duties. However, the U.S. used to lower the trade remedies when the cost of lumber rose above certain thresholds.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and two colleagues introduced a bill that would extend normal trade relations for exports from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Although Kazakhstan and Tajikistan are members of the World Trade Organization, they still have temporary normal trade relations with the U.S. The countries have had temporary NTR since the early 1990s, after the Soviet Union broke up.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., is asking why tariffs on aluminum seem to be permanent fixtures at the same time that there's a pause on potential anti-circumvention duties on Southeast Asian solar panels.