House Select Committee on China Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., asked Homeland Security Investigations to look into whether a surge in drone imports from Malaysia is due to transshipment from China, and asked the administration to hike tariffs on Chinese unmanned aerial vehicles, either by increasing Section 301 tariffs on the product, by initiating an antidumping/countervailing duty investigation, and/or opening a Section 232 investigation.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., asked the leaders of luxury apparel company Loro Piana to defend its practices in sourcing vicuña wool in Peru.
The White House told the Senate that it strongly opposes an effort to undo the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's finding that fresh beef imports from Paraguay are safe.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to mark up a bill on March 20 that would direct the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration to undertake a study on whether routers and modems designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by Chinese firms, or firms from other adversary countries, are a risk to national security.
The American Apparel and Footwear Association's vice president for trade and customs policy is hearing that a higher competitive needs limitation will be part of a Generalized System of Preferences benefits program renewal.
A House member who is running for the Senate in Indiana asked the Commerce Department to initiate an investigation on the import of electric vehicles and electric vehicle batteries made anywhere in the world.
The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, even without its trade pillar completed, is moving toward implementation with the establishment of an IPEF Council that will meet annually. The council will consider proposals to negotiate new agreements, enhance trade or economic relations, or amend IPEF; consider other countries' interest in acceding to IPEF; and adopt its rules.
Panelists from the U.S. and Mexico said that cars assembled in Mexico by Chinese-owned firms can't enter the U.S. with USMCA benefits because of the stringent rules of origin, but spent less time talking about how cars manufactured outside China, including in the U.S., could enter under 2.5% most favored nation tariffs.
Twenty-two Republican senators -- including the top Republicans on the Senate Finance and Agriculture committees and one of the front-runners to replace Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- argue that the "current sharp decline in U.S. agricultural exports is directly attributable to and exacerbated by an unambitious U.S. trade strategy that is failing to meaningfully expand market access or reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade."
Ten senators have introduced a bill to require that the administration reinstate 25% tariffs on Mexican steel imports for at least one year, because they say that Mexico is not honoring the 2019 agreement that lifted Section 232 tariffs on Mexico and Canada. A companion bill was also introduced in the House.