The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is telling Congress that some of the language about Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers (or NVOCCs) and "Ocean Transport Intermediaries" in the Ocean Shipping Act does not make sense, because these intermediaries do not control cargo placement aboard a vessel, and most of the time, they do not set detention and demurrage charges.
Almost half of the Senate's Republicans and a third of its Democrats are asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to open an exclusion process for all importers of Chinese goods covered by Section 301 tariffs, and to presumptively exclude any product of which nearly all the imports are coming from China. Lead authors Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., say that if importers haven't moved out of China after years of higher tariffs, that "suggests that moving these supply chains out of China is uniquely unlikely, and that our efforts to diversify production locales and reshore manufacturing would be better spent on other products."
Senators introduced a companion version of the House’s Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which would look to hold ocean carriers accountable for declining exports and other unfair shipping practices. The bipartisan bill -- introduced Feb. 3 by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. -- would also require carriers to submit quarterly reports on total import and export tonnage per vessel and grant the Federal Maritime Commission new investigative and enforcement authorities. The House passed its version in December (see 2112080075).
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announced he is introducing a bill that would make U.S. companies liable for statements "that excuse the genocide in Xinjiang" or other statements that advance Chinese propaganda efforts, and would make it illegal to invest in core Chinese Communist Party activities. He says these actions would be subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, unless companies could explain that their actions were not made to gain or retain market access. Traditionally, the FCPA has been used to prosecute the offering of bribes by U.S. persons or firms in foreign countries.
A bipartisan amendment that would ban mink farming for fur production in the U.S. passed the House of Representatives 262-168, as the House was working its way through hundreds of amendments to the America Competes Act. The amendment, co-sponsored by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., amends the Lacey Act. It was changed from the original language, which spoke specifically of ending import and export of Neovison vison, the species known as American minks. The new version bans the sale, possession, acquisition, purchase or transport of the species, if it was raised in captivity for fur production. If this section of the bill survives the conference committee process with the Senate, it would take effect Dec. 31.
Members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China are asking appropriators in the House and Senate to dedicate more than the $9 million or $10 million currently slated to strengthen CBP enforcement of the ban on imports of goods made with forced labor. "Given the subsequent enactment of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the request by the Biden Administration for additional resources to implement it, we respectfully request that the conference report on the FY2022 bill include an even greater amount for forced labor enforcement," they wrote Feb. 2. Congress has not yet passed bills to fund the government for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2021, but appropriators are trying to reach agreement by Feb. 18 on the rest of the fiscal year's funding levels.
Sandler Travis managing principal Nicole Bivens Collinson said that Sandler Travis is working with companies to develop comments to the federal government on how to implement the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (see 2201210031) because a lot of companies don't want their names on their comments. "We are creating an ad hoc coalition because I know a lot of companies don't want to go on record," partly "because they may be a global operation that has operations in China," she said, while speaking on a recent webinar hosted by the firm. China prohibits companies from adhering to foreign laws that negatively impact the country.
Foreign-trade zones would continue to lose out to foreign distribution companies under the changes to de minimis proposed in The Import Security and Fairness Act, the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones said in a recent letter to House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who introduced the bill (see 2201180053). A version of that bill, which would no longer end de minimis treatment for goods subject to Section 232 tariffs, among other changes, was included in the America Competes Act (see 2201260029). While NAFTZ sent its letter before the bill was attached to America Competes, "we don’t support either version because neither allows U.S. companies operating in a U.S. FTZ the same ability to leverage Section 321 de minimus as their foreign competitors can and will still be able to do with the current language of the bill," emailed Melissa Irmen, NAFTZ's chair.
The Americans for Free Trade coalition, which would like the Section 301 tariffs removed entirely, said Congress must act to spur the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to institute a broad exclusion process for the China tariffs. The group sent a letter to the House speaker and minority leader asking that two amendments on an exclusion process be allowed a vote, and they said they encourage members to vote for the amendments.
The AFL-CIO said the House version of the China package "includes critically important fixes" to the Senate's trade title, including removing finished products from the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, changes to antidumping and countervailing duty law, and the change to de minimis, which "would halt China’s exploitation of US de minimis policy."