The House Ways and Means Committee's Trade Subcommittee announced that it would hold a hearing on enhancing the U.S.-European Union (EU) trade relationship on July 27, 2010.
On July 19, 2010, the following executive communications were received by Congress:
On July 20, 2010, the following trade-related hearings will be held:
The Senate has reached a unanimous-consent agreement that on July 20, 2010, it will resume consideration of the Senate amendment of House-passed H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (Tax Extenders or Jobs bill). (The House-passed version of H.R. 4213 included cotton and wool fund provisions, etc.) During its consideration of H.R. 4213 on July 20, 2010, the Senate is expected to vote on a motion to end debate on the measure.
On July 19, 2010, Senators Stabenow (D) and Brown (D) sent a letter to President Obama expressing concern over the Administration’s proposed U.S.-Korea free trade agreement. The senators, Congressionally-appointed members of the President’s Export Council, urged the President to “drive a hard bargain with Korea” in any U.S.-Korea free trade agreement in order to combat unfair trade practices and protect U.S. jobs and innovation.
On July 19, 2010 Representative Dingell (D) wrote a letter to Senator Feinstein (D) calling on her to stop blocking a vote on food safety legislation in the Senate. According to the letter, the cause for the Senate’s delayed consideration of food safety legislation is Senator Feinstein’s insistence on adding controversial language to the bill that would ban the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in food and beverage containers.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Waxman (D) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Stupak (D) sent a letter to Philip Morris International requesting information on its labor practices in Kazakhstan and other Philip Morris International markets.
On July 13, 2010, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy held a hearing to consider the impact of China’s new Antimonopoly Law (AML) on U.S. companies.
On July 22, 2010, the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on Transfer Pricing Issues. According to the Committee, the transfer pricing rules have been updated and modified many times over the last decade, yet still foster controversy. Pursuant to these concerns, the Committee requested that the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) study and report back on the issue of income shifting and transfer pricing. As part of background material for the hearing, the JCT will provide a summary of ongoing work, containing a discussion of the issues as well as case studies, which will be a focus of this hearing.
On July 15, 2010, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Berman issued a statement praising the inclusion of a bipartisan provision to restrict the illegal trade in “conflict minerals” in the financial reform conference report (H.R. 4173) recently passed by the House and Senate.