Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized the Senate’s decision last week to not pass a bill that would have required new sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, saying it sends a “message of appeasement” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Senate couldn’t reach the 60-vote threshold required to pass the bill after the White House convinced many Democrats to vote against the legislation, which it said would have undermined unity with Europe (see 2201130067).
The U.S. should try to use existing tools to better screen outbound investments rather than create a new investment regime, which could burden American companies and damage U.S. competitiveness, two former U.S. officials and an international investment expert said. But one member of a bipartisan congressional commission said a new outbound investment regime is necessary to better protect U.S. critical technologies and national security.
Republicans and Democrats this week urged two State Department nominees to work transparently with Congress so lawmakers can perform better sanctions oversight, which they say has been a major hurdle during the last year. The Biden administration has been unhelpful in responses to some congressional sanctions queries, the lawmakers said, which has led to disagreements and confusion surrounding U.S. sanctions against Nord Stream 2 and some country-specific regimes.
The leaders of the Senate and House foreign affairs committees urged the Biden administration to impose more sanctions on the Bashar al-Assad regime to “reinforce” the U.S.’s position against Syria. The lawmakers said several Arab partners have continued formal and informal relationships with the regime despite its “horrific” human rights abuses, and more sanctions could make sure the regime remains isolated.
The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and that committee's chairman, as well as the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, urged the deputy U.S. trade representative to press Mexico and Canada on market access issues for the energy and agricultural sectors, and the senators also complained about barriers for the telecom, pharmaceutical and television industries in either Mexico or Canada. Deputy USTR Jayme White is meeting with Canadian and Mexican counterparts this week.
Retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. cost exporters more than $27 billion from mid-2018 to the end of 2019, with sales to China accounting for about 95% of the losses, USDA said in a new report this month. Although the phase one U.S.-China trade deal and China’s tariff exemption programs helped to “significantly” rebound some U.S. exports to the country, the agency said U.S. market share still remained below pre-retaliatory tariffs levels one year after the deal.
More than 25 Senate Democrats introduced a bill this week that would impose a host of sweeping new sanctions against Russia -- including new restrictions on Russian debt, dealings with government officials and banks -- if Russia further invades Ukraine. The legislation, led by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., would also require the administration to expedite deliveries of defense shipments to Ukraine and would authorize new sanctions on certain financial messaging service providers and Russia’s energy and mineral extraction industries.
The Treasury Department earlier this month added New Zealand to its list of excepted foreign states that benefit from certain exemptions to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. process. New Zealand, along with the U.K., will have until February 2023 to meet certain foreign investment criteria and cement its position as an excepted foreign state. Treasury announced this month that Australia and Canada had met that criteria and will remain eligible for the provision, which provides certain foreign countries exemptions to the CFIUS process, sometimes allowing them to skip CFIUS clearance altogether (see 2201050039 and 2109030039). New Zealand qualifies as an excepted foreign state because of its intelligence-sharing relationship with the U.S., “among other factors,” Treasury said Jan. 5. The agency also pointed to New Zealand’s “collective defense arrangement and cooperation” with the U.S.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative is seeking applicants for the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa for the four-year term that begins in March. Applicants should have knowledge on U.S-Africa trade, including under the African Growth and Opportunity Act; the government is interested in hearing from people with expertise in trade facilitation; sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures and technical barriers to trade; trade capacity building; constraints to trade; investment treaty negotiations; and implementation of World Trade Organization agreements. Applicants can be from industry or services businesses, organized labor, agriculture, non-profit development organizations or academia. Members who are selected will advise USTR on negotiating objectives, the impact of trade agreements, and fulfilling the objectives of AGOA. USTR is seeking to have a diverse committee, not just by demographics, but also by region of the country, the size of the organization the member represents, sectors and points of view.
China is likely to increase its use of economic and trade restrictions, specifically export controls, to penalize U.S. and EU companies that act against its interests, two security and economics experts said. While China hasn’t “extensively” used its newly established export control or sanctions regimes, its recently issued export control white paper and other rhetoric suggest it won't hesitate to soon use those powers more broadly, the experts said.