Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., introduced a bipartisan bill that would require CBP "to regularly review and update policies and manuals related to inspections of ports of entry." No further details have yet been released on the bill, which was introduced June 23 and has three co-sponsors.
The Senate unanimously passed a bill that would remove quotas and tariffs on imported formula for 90 days. The bill, introduced by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, passed June 23. Lee had originally sought to remove the tariffs and quotas for 180 days.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said he talked with Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi, and she has agreed to press India to reduce its pecan tariffs. Ossoff said pecan farmers have told him India's tariffs are a problem. "Responding to the needs of Georgia farmers, Sen. Ossoff raised objections to India’s high tariffs on pecans with India’s Ambassador to the U.S Taranjit Singh Sandhu in two separate engagements," Ossoff's office said in a press release.
Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., a member of the conference committee for the China package, said he has not talked to Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del, about his new bill to pair trade adjustment assistance renewal and a limited trade promotion authority for a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom. But, Kildee said, "I think trade adjustment is so important, I'm willing to put it on any train that will leave the station and reach Biden's desk." Kildee added that he would be cautious about agreeing to take TAA out of the China package. "But I would have to have a lot of certainty that this was not an off ramp, but an on ramp," he said.
House Ways and Means Committee Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and ranking member Adrian Smith, R-Neb., are co-sponsors of a bill that would suspend tariffs on imported formula from Germany, Switzerland and England through Nov. 14.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and nine other Republicans told President Joe Biden that he made a mistake by temporarily preventing antidumping and countervailing duties from taking effect is if the Commerce Department determines they are warranted in an anti-circumvention inquiry on imported Asian solar panels.
A recently introduced House bill with bipartisan support would place more restrictions on certain imports from Russia. The Expanding Trade Sanctions on Russia Act, introduced last week by Reps. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., and Tom Rice, R-S.C., would place a ban on all imports from Russia with more than $50 million in 2021 import value, the lawmakers said. If it becomes law, the restrictions would take effect 15 days after the bill's enactment, and would allow the president to waive the embargo for a “specific product” if the president determines the waiver is in the “national interest of the United States.”
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said that he wants to get the conference negotiations done for the China package, because the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) has "some important trade aspects."
A new bill directs the administration to open a Section 301 investigation "to determine whether acts, policies, and practices of the Government of the People's Republic of China related to technology transfer, intellectual property, or innovation with respect to rare earth metal mining, separation, metallization, alloying, or magnet manufacturing, or related processes, are acts, policies, and practices" are damaging enough to the U.S. economy that they necessitate "trade enforcement actions to deter the Government of the People's Republic of China from further interference in the rare earth metals market."
The June 13 passing of bill that aims to force shipping companies to accept U.S. exports on the return trip to Asia, and which further codifies Federal Maritime Commission's attempts to police detention and demurrage charges, was hailed by politicians as an inflation solution and greeted with caution by industry players.