Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, former ranking member of the House Select Committee China, hailed the passage of more funding for the Trade Fraud Task Force. The money was in a spending package for the Justice Department that passed both chambers of Congress this week, and is headed for the president's desk. The task force (see 2509020052) was given $2 million.
Steel industry executives told a bipartisan panel of House members that Canada and Mexico shouldn't be allowed an exemption from Section 232 tariffs, and a representative of Nucor, the largest U.S. steel manufacturer, asked the members to "vocally oppose any efforts to weaken these measures, whether through carve-outs for countries like Canada and Mexico or through gamesmanship like under-reporting the value of steel and steel products."
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, told International Trade Today that the fact that the House of Representatives already passed two spending packages complicates his desire to attach trade preferences to a spending bill, but that it is not necessarily an insurmountable hurdle. Both bills, which fund a number of departments through Sept. 30, must pass both chambers before Jan. 30. The Senate voted on the first of the two packages -- which funds Commerce Department, the International Trade Commission, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative -- a few hours after Crapo spoke. That leaves only one funding bill that could serve as a vehicle for the trade bills.
Witnesses at a House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee hearing about digital trade and international protections of intellectual property rights praised the Trump administration's work on maintaining a moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions, such as music downloads, streaming films and software.
The Court of International Trade on Jan. 14 confirmed that the government's stipulation regarding the availability of refunds from tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act "applies to all current and future similarly situated plaintiffs."
Public comments submitted to the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee's Jan. 14 meeting were supportive of the committee's recommendations calling for CBP to release clearer and additional guidance on how importers can comply with Section 232 tariffs (see 2601120017), particularly when it comes to the valuation of steel and aluminum content.
The House of Representatives passed, by large margins, bills that would restore the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Haiti HELP trade preference program, and keep the tariff breaks active through the end of 2028.
House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, introduced a bill last week that would impose 10% tariffs on goods imported from countries that have trade surpluses with the U.S. and 15% tariffs on goods from countries that have trade deficits with the U.S.
Members of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee are urging CBP to provide more clarity on how to comply with Section 232 tariffs, as well as suggesting that CBP enable importers to use publicly available metal commodity pricing for valuation purposes, according to a list of recommendations that the committee is expected to vote on during its quarterly meeting on Jan. 14.
The Committee to Support US Trade Laws said that while it supports the Commerce Department appropriations bill that advanced in the House of Representatives this week, it "is disappointed by the decrease in funding of the International Trade Administration’s (ITA) budget from last year to $562 million in direct appropriations."