The U.S. government is considering requiring a small proportion of exported goods, both containerized and not, and including liquified natural gas, to be carried on U.S.-flagged ships by U.S. operators, with the proportion climbing over time, and, eventually, with U.S.-built ships also required.
A bipartisan, bicameral bill would create a Maritime Security Trust Fund, into which revenues would come from tonnage fees on Chinese-owned and Chinese-flagged ships visiting U.S. ports, special tonnage taxes, light money, and tariffs and duties, including Section 301 tariffs.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is likely to react “more negatively and more directly” than his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, to the EU’s plan to start taxing carbon-intensive imports, a former U.S. trade official said Oct. 17.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank's "Trade Guys" podcast said that the EU's tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (see 408200020) "is sort of a preview of coming attractions."
China again extended its Section 301 retaliatory tariff exclusion period for sorbitol and other non-U.S. agricultural goods, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service said in a May report. The exclusion period was scheduled to expire April 30 but now will remain in effect until Nov. 30. USDA said this is the seventh time China has extended the exclusion period for sorbitol, adding that the U.S. was the third-largest supplier of sorbitol to China in 2023, with Chinese imports reaching $1.2 million.
China announced that it is "firmly opposed" to both the U.S. decision to open a new Section 301 investigation on allegedly unfair practices in China's maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors (see 2404170029) and President Joe Biden's call for a "tripling" of the existing Section 301 tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum (see 2404170040).
Although all members of the House Ways and Means Committee supported a bill renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, the bill proceeded to the House floor on a split bipartisan vote of 17-24 as Democrats unsuccessfully called to include an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program, which lapsed in 2022.
After October's deadline passed without an agreement between the U.S. and the EU on a global trade deal for steel and aluminum (see 2404040034), talks are still ongoing, the European Commission’s top trade official said during a news conference April 18.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai gave testimony April 17 to the Senate Finance Committee regarding President Joe Biden’s 2024 trade policy agenda. She touched mainly on trade deal enforcement, U.S. exporters’ access to new markets and the USTR’s new stance on digital trade, though she also discussed issues such as forced labor and the upcoming legislation on the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program.
American and Chinese officials discussed tariffs, export controls and market access issues during the April 2-5 first meetings of the U.S.-China Commercial Issues Working Group, both countries said in readouts after the talks.