Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who earlier said the priority should be renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act "as soon as possible and for a lengthy period," rather than making reforms to the trade preference program, has now put out a "discussion draft" that lays out some reform proposals.
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.
If a bill that unanimously passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee becomes law, CBP's Office of Trade would get rid of these job descriptions -- Import Specialist, Entry Specialist, National Account Manager, International Trade Specialist, Drawback Specialist and National Import Specialist -- and combine those duties all under the job of Global Trade Specialist. CBP has been asking for the change for about five years, according to a former government official now working in trade.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, said that policymaking around economic competition with China is "messy."
Under a newly introduced bill imposing a pollution fee, importers of record would have to pay a tax based on the percentage of the value of the imported good and calculated on the difference between the pollution intensity of that good's production in the country it's manufactured in and domestic production.
Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., introduced a bill that would require public disclosure of air cargo, truck and rail manifests, not just ocean shipments. Manifests usually include the name and address of the shipper, a cargo description, number of packages and gross weight, name of the carrier, port of exit, destination port and country destination.
A White House adviser on international economics praised the Americas Act, a bill that proposes adding more countries to USMCA, subsidizing business moves away from China to the Western Hemisphere, and lowering U.S. de minimis levels to pay for it.
A National Security Council representative pitched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework as a "modern economic engagement," different from past free trade agreements, and one that will "reduce supply chain dependencies in a way that brings prosperity to all involved."
Trade ministers from Japan, the U.S., the EU, the U.K., France, Canada, Germany and Italy said they will work to reach an agreement on World Trade Organization reform "with the view to having a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024." The binding appellate level of dispute settlement at the WTO has been defunct since late 2019, because the U.S. blocked all appointments to the appellate body.
Even though there still are nearly two years left in the African Growth and Opportunity Act, companies that source from Africa and the countries who use AGOA tariff breaks are pushing Congress to renew the program long before the Sept. 30, 2025, deadline.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she discussed the next steps for negotiations on the global arrangement on steel and aluminum with her EU counterpart, Valdis Dombrovskis, and said she updated France's Foreign Trade Minister Olivier Becht on the negotiations. Her Oct. 28 readout of the meeting with Becht said she "noted the importance of both sides continuing to work together in a productive manner over the next several months. She reiterated the United States’ commitment to remain at the negotiating table in order to reach a meaningful outcome."