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.
Two bills that aim to fight the sale of counterfeit goods through e-commerce have been included in the House China package, something House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had called for last year (see 2112150050). While neither was included in the Senate China package, the inclusion of the Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act, known as the Inform Consumers Act, and the Stopping Harmful Offers on Platforms by Screening Against Fakes in E-commerce Act, or Shop Safe Act, in the America Competes Act gives them a reasonable chance of becoming law through the bicameral compromise.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said he and colleagues Reps. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., "are alarmed by reports of continued harassment, intimidation, and violence against independent union activists in the General Motors’ (GM) auto plant in Silao, Mexico leading up to next week’s union election." The congressmen noted that a previous vote in Silao was overturned through consultations under USMCA's rapid response mechanism, and they say that unless GM and Mexican officials immediately act, the agreement to rerun the election could be pointless.
Iowa Republican senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst are asking the Biden administration to complete free trade agreements in Asia, or rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as China expands its influence through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). They wrote Jan. 25: "Initially, your administration stated they were content with focusing on your domestic agenda before they consider negotiating new free trade agreements. However, a year later, it is clear that your domestic agenda has been stalled while China is taking serious action to expand their foothold in the region."
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, recently introduced the Sanctions Targeting Aggressors of Neighboring Democracies (STAND) with Taiwan Act of 2022, a bill that he says "would impose crippling, comprehensive economic and financial sanctions on China in the event that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) or its proxies initiate a military invasion of the island democracy of Taiwan." Sullivan said the bill would prohibit hedge funds, venture capital firms and private equity firms from investing in any Chinese company in a Made in China 2025 priority sector and would sanction Chinese financial institutions and industrial sectors. It also would ban the importation of a good "mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the People’s Republic of China, or by a person working for or affiliated with an entity or industry wholly financed by the Chinese Communist Party or in which the Chinese Communist Party has a majority ownership interest," unless the president said the importation is necessary for the nation's economic security, national security or public health.
All 14 of the Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are telling colleagues in their chamber that providing a $12,500 incentive to purchase union-made, U.S.-assembled electric vehicles will spur foreign retaliation against American auto exports. The House version of Build Back Better offers a $7,500 refundable tax credit for any electric vehicle purchase -- the same amount as current law, but makes it refundable and does not phase it out for leading manufacturers. Currently, Tesla and General Motors vehicles are no longer eligible for the credits. But in order to receive $12,500, the car or truck would need to include a U.S.-assembled battery and be made by union workers in the United States.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America is asking the House Ways and Means Committee to move Democratic bills to curtail the use of de minimis and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and to pass the Democratic version of a Generalized System of Preferences benefits program bill. Whatever the committee recommends will be subject to a cross-Capitol compromise, as part of a larger China package called the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. The Senate’s Trade Act of 2021, part of that package, also included requirements to reopen a broad exclusion process for Section 301 tariffs on China.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission used to hear critiques that it was too negative about China, too focused on threats from what is now the world's second-largest economy. "There were a lot of people who thought we were outliers," said Chairman Carolyn Bartholomew, who once served as Rep. Nancy Pelosi's chief of staff, before the California Democrat became speaker of the House. "We are not outliers anymore. And that’s not because the commission’s views have changed. The entire debate has shifted."
Six Democratic and two Republican senators are asking President Joe Biden to overrule the International Trade Commission and allow the safeguard tariffs on solar panels and cells to lapse in February, as they were originally scheduled to do. Three Republican and two Democratic senators are asking the president to retain the tariffs for another four years, and to restore tariffs on bifacial solar panels, which were collected for about a year, until the Court of International Trade said applying tariffs to bifacial solar panels after they were originally excluded was unlawful. That decision, from November (see 2111160032), is being appealed.
Almost a third of House members are asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to reopen exclusion applications to all importers of Chinese goods subject to Section 301 tariffs. Roughly $250 billion worth of Chinese imports annually are subject to an additional 25% tariff under Section 301; another $112 billion worth of imports are subject to an additional 7.5% tariff.