Senators on June 20 voted to block the sale of billions of dollars worth of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after weeks of criticism from bipartisan members of Congress. The sale, originally announced by the Trump administration on May 24, used an emergency provision in the Arms Export Control Act to allow the State Department to bypass congressional approval and certify 22 arms transfers to the Middle East. But Democratic and Republican members in both the House and Senate criticized the move, saying it was a misuse of executive power (see 1906120066).
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A Senate bill introduced June 13 with bipartisan support would require the Trump administration to submit reports to Congress on whether Hong Kong is following U.S. export control laws and sanctions. The requirement, part of a bill that would amend the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, would order the Treasury, State and Commerce secretaries to send several House and Senate committees a report on whether Hong Kong has enforced U.S. export controls with respect to “sensitive dual-use items” and abided by both U.S. and United Nations sanctions. The administration would need to submit the reports within 180 days after the enactment of the bill, which was introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who's been working for months on a compromise bill to address national security tariffs, said that an introduction won't happen until after the August recess. "We're trying to get a consensus on [Section] 232s, that isn't the easiest thing," he said. "But we're making some progress." He said, speaking to reporters on June 19, that he'd had meetings on the bill that day.
Iran is reducing its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action because it said other JCPOA “parties do not abide by theirs,” according to a June 18 press release by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
The day after President Donald Trump officially launched his re-election campaign, moderate Democrat Rep. Ron Kind warned the administration's top trade official that the China trade war is making voters in his home state of Wisconsin lose patience. Trump won Kind's district by 4 percentage points, and narrowly won Wisconsin in the Electoral College.
Most of the questions to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer about the Section 301 tariff actions focused on the pain to U.S. consumers and the difficulties faced by importers of products that are subject to 25 percent tariffs. But Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told the nation's top trade negotiator that even a local meat locker has been hurt by the trade war. Thune, who was questioning Lighthizer during his appearance June 18 in front of the Senate Finance Committee, said the meat locker employee told him that before the trade war began, someone would buy cow hides for $150 each. China imports a lot of animal skins to support its furniture and shoemaking industries. "Now I have to pay 600 a head to haul it away," Thune said the man told him, which is a cost of $40,000 a year. For a business that size, that could be the entire profit margin, Thune said.
Trade negotiations will resume with China ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping, Trump tweeted June 18. He said he and Xi "will be having an extended meeting next week at the G-20 in Japan." The White House said the two leaders talked on that morning about "structural barriers to trade with China and achieving meaningful reforms that are enforceable and verifiable."
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 10-14 in case they were missed.
Auto exporters will be “among the biggest beneficiaries” of a ratified U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said during a June 18 Senate Finance Committee hearing, adding that he has “hope” the U.S. will reach a trade deal with Japan within the next “few months.”
Mexico will be ready with a list of retaliatory tariffs should the U.S. end up imposing escalating tariffs announced by President Donald Trump at the end of May, Secretary of Economy Graciela Marquez Colin said in remarks to the Mexican Senate June 14. Work continues on the specifics of the list during the 45-day period Mexico has to reduce migration under the deal before the U.S. says it will again consider imposing tariffs (see 1906120039).