Half of Russia's 20 richest billionaires have not been hit with any U.S., U.K. or EU sanctions over Russia's military assault on Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported March 30. Three of those 20 individuals appeared on the EU, U.K. and U.S. sanctions lists. Russia's richest man, Vladimir Potanin, a metals executive with a $30 billion net worth, remains unlisted. Bloomberg cited sanctions experts who say that the decision not to list these men is due, at least in part, to their stakes in massive energy, metal and fertilizer companies. They said this decision may be due to the 2018 experience of sanctioning of Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum executive, which caused a massive price hike that settled only after Deripaska gave up control of United Co. Rusal International in 2019.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai endorsed the Level the Playing Act during a four-hour hearing in front of the House Ways and Means Committee after one of its House sponsors noted the House and the Senate are about to go to conference, and the proposal to rewrite antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws is going to be on the table.
Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., the top Republican on the House Agriculture subcommittee that covers trade, told Farmers For Free Trade that ag exporters "want China to live up to their commitments, but we don't want to put all our eggs in one basket."
Senators and representatives from all over the country wrote to the International Trade Commission asking it to reconsider countervailing duties on phosphate fertilizer from Morocco and asking it to suspend the investigation on urea ammonium nitrate solutions from Trinidad and Tobago.
Even as the European Council agreed on the approach to a carbon border adjustment mechanism, a lawmaker in the EU Parliament said that the fact that CBAM did not make it out of the trade committee showed how thorny it will be to get a law passed to hike tariffs on imports that do not come from countries that are fighting climate change as strongly as the EU.
A bill that ends Russia's and Belarus's ability to export goods to the U.S. under the same tariff treatment as most of the rest of the world passed the House 424-8. Only Cuba and North Korea are subject to Column 2 tariffs; there is an embargo on imports from North Korea, and the U.S. imports almost nothing from Cuba. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said he intends to send this bill and the ban on oil, natural gas and coal imports from Russia, to the Senate at the same time.
House leaders had thought there could be a vote to remove Russia's permanent normal trade relations status on March 16, but both the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee and the majority leader, who schedules bills for a vote, said that text that is accepted by both parties is nearly done. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, told International Trade Today during a press call that the text just needs to be finished so that there can be "a chance to brief our members in the House before it goes to a vote."
Italy seized a $580 million superyacht owned by Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's office announced, Bloomberg reported. The ship was nabbed in the port of Trieste in Northern Italy. Melnichenko was sanctioned by the EU following Russia's invasion of Ukraine due to his status as a prominent Russian businessman involved in economic sectors that provide a substantial source of revenue to the Russian government. Melnichenko founded fertilizer and agricultural products manufacturer EuroChem and coal company Suek. After the sanctions were imposed March 9, he left his board positions at both companies, Bloomberg reported.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kan., introduced a bill that would allow for a one-year waiver of antidumping and countervailing duties "if there is an emergency situation including natural disasters, war, epidemics, labor disputes, or major accidents."
OCP, a Moroccan state-owned fertilizer maker, asked the Court of International Trade to order the International Trade Commission to reconsider its determination of injury. OCP's March 3 motion accuses the ITC of failing to consider arguments and evidence in the countervailing duty investigation of phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia. The ITC determined in March 2021 that Morocco was subsidizing phosphate fertilization and that U.S. domestic industry was materially injured (OCP S.A. v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 21-00219).