President Joe Biden, speaking at the Port of Los Angeles, praised the collaborative work of port officials and workers and the government to break through logjams, and partly blamed foreign-owned shipping companies for rising prices.
The House passed the Food and Drug Amendments of 2022 on June 8 on a 392-28 vote. The bill, which addresses user fees for drugs, generic drugs, biosimilars and devices, also includes provisions on FDA inspections of drug and device facilities. Among other things, it would provide in law for an FDA pilot program on unannounced foreign facility inspections. FDA has said it will begin such a pilot for facilities in China and India in 2022 (see 2202090025).
Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., who's been a defender of trade liberalization, introduced a bill that requires the Treasury Department, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the International Trade Commission to assess whether the Section 301 tariffs, Section 232 tariffs, safeguard tariffs and the expiration of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program have contributed to inflation.
More than 25 Republican lawmakers said they haven’t yet received a response from the Biden administration from their March letter urging U.S. officials to assist in negotiations between West Coast ports and their dockworkers’ union. In a new letter sent this week, they said negotiations have already been suspended once and they are concerned the Biden administration “does not share the same urgency raised by stakeholders and Congress.”
The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill along party lines the evening of June 2 that aims to improve gun safety and restrict the sale of ghost guns, bump stocks and large capacity magazines. The bill establishes "a new federal offense for the import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of a large capacity magazines, with exceptions for certain law enforcement uses," the committee said.
A recent Congressional Research Service report on the phase one deal with China notes that there has been little discussion about how to enforce what China agreed to, and how to address issues that phase one didn't touch but were highlighted in the Section 301 report.
A bipartisan bill was recently introduced that would codify the executive action on formula importation (see 2205260032) and which invites the administration to suspend tariffs on baby formula and formula ingredients.
A trade group that includes eBay, Etsy, Poshmark and Pinterest, called the Coalition to Protect America's Small Sellers (PASS), is arguing that the INFORM Act belongs in the China package, but the SHOP SAFE Act does not. "While INFORM and SHOP SAFE seem similar they both are very different pieces of legislation, and most importantly, have conflicting disclosure and verification requirements for sellers," the group wrote in a June 2 letter sent to the leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
Four Republican senators, led by Roger Marshall of Kansas, asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai "to develop and begin executing a strategic plan for the long-term stability of fertilizer trade," because China, Russia and Belarus are unreliable trading partners for phosphates and potash. In a May 31 letter, the senators said the antidumping duties on Moroccan phosphates and the pending tariffs on urea ammonium nitrate from Trinidad and Tobago are only making the crunch worse. "Currently, 36% of the global tradable supply of phosphate fertilizers is not subject to U.S. duties," they wrote. "To believe these problems are only short-term is short-sighted. Even if the war in Ukraine would end tomorrow, our relations with Russia will take decades to heal and may never be the same. Western countries with fertilizer supply problems will be competing for fertilizer from 'friendly' countries."
A nonbinding resolution to pursue a free trade agreement with the U.K. passed the Senate through unanimous consent. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, hailed the passage in a May 26 news release. "The United States and the United Kingdom are the closest of allies and the most natural of economic partners. Since the British people have reclaimed the right to negotiate their own trade agreements, I have advocated for a robust trade agreement between our nations. I am overjoyed and encouraged to see the Senate pass this resolution calling for such a mutually beneficial agreement. Free trade between our nations would be good for Britons, for Americans, and particularly for Utahns who have such close economic ties to our friends across the pond," he said.