Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he wasn’t satisfied after the committee’s closed briefing with the Biden administration about the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline last week, adding that the administration “continues its refusal to follow the law.” Senate Republicans have criticized the administration for not imposing more sanctions on the pipeline, arguing that sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act are mandatory (see 2109150017).
While too early to declare a success, the U.S.-European Union Trade and Technology Council has set both sides on a path toward tangible progress on more export controls and investment screening collaboration, experts said. During the inaugural TTC meeting last week, the U.S. and EU agreed to develop “convergent” export controls and share more information to catch malign foreign investments (see 2109290083), which could result in meaningful changes within the next year, the experts said.
Discussions over the Bali tariff rate quota underfill mechanism were suspended at the World Trade Organization Committee on Agriculture's Sept. 23-24 meeting, the WTO said. The underfill mechanism refers to cases where the fill rate of a TRQ in a given year is below 65% or the fill rate is not notified, as formulated during the 2017-19 review of the implementation of the Bali TRQ decision, WTO said. One key outstanding issue in paragraph four is how to get to closure on an underfill for a developing importing member that does not achieve the required increase in the fill rate in the final stage of the mechanism, the WTO said. Talks over how to resolve this issue were suspended, with some members requesting more time for discussion.
Finance Committee member Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, bemoaned the fact that the House did not vote on a short-term extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance already passed by the Senate, and told his committee's chairman and top Republican that he would like to be part of bipartisan negotiations to get TAA moving, paired with other trade priorities. Portman, in a letter Sept. 28, also said he worries that passing TAA as part of the Democratic-only soft infrastructure package means the broader trade agenda will be neglected. "As policymakers, I believe we can take steps to support American manufacturing and avoid the root causes for TAA," he said, and argued that renewing the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, and strengthening antidumping and countervailing duty laws would help.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said he's had no consultation with staff or principals from the Commerce Committee or the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on how they would like to change their approach on tariffs on European steel and aluminum. The European Union and the U.S. have been negotiating over lifting 25% tariffs on steel and 10% tariffs on aluminum imposed during the Trump presidency, ostensibly to protect national security. If the U.S. and the EU do not reach an agreement, retaliatory tariffs on spirits exports are scheduled to double, to 50%. "We’d love to have this conversation with the administration on how you’d tackle 232s and 301s," he said, particularly in a time when supply chains are strained and inflation is up. But Brady declined to say during a call with reporters on Sept. 29 whether his concerns about the drag on the economy from supply chain challenges and inflation mean that he would argue to lift the tariffs on the EU.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Trade Subcommittee chairman and ranking Republican met with World Trade Organization Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala when she was in town last week. Brady and Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., issued a statement that said, "We were delighted to meet with Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at this critical juncture in the history of the World Trade Organization. As we discussed today, our commitment to the success of the WTO is unwavering. However, the United States has long insisted that reform is needed at the WTO, and bipartisan support in Congress for WTO reform is stronger than ever." Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., chairman of the trade subcommittee, said, “It was an honor to lead a bipartisan roundtable discussion with Director-General Ngozi where members shared their support for the WTO and relayed their priorities to Dr. Ngozi directly. I, along with several of my colleagues, emphasized the importance of a WTO TRIPS waiver on COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and tests as well as the critical role that the WTO has to play in protecting the climate. I’m also glad we were able to discuss illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and was encouraged by Dr. Ngozi’s comments about potential progress in dealing with these horrific and destructive practices.”
Although the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. allowed Magnachip Semiconductor Corp. to refile its proposed acquisition by Beijing-based Wise Road Capital (see 2109160037), the deal seems highly unlikely to pass CFIUS scrutiny, trade lawyers said. Finding pathways to mitigate the national security risks identified by CFIUS will be extremely challenging, they said, particularly as the U.S. increases its focus on stopping China from acquiring advanced semiconductor equipment.
Jayme White, the longtime Democratic trade adviser for the Senate Finance Committee, was approved on a 80-18 vote to be the new deputy U.S. trade representative for the Western Hemisphere, Europe, the Middle East, labor and environment. "His intellect and understanding of the key issues are second-to-none, but he also asks the thoughtful questions about how the policies we develop in Washington will affect workers across the country," USTR Katherine Tai said as she hailed the Senate vote the evening of Sept. 22.
President Joe Biden will nominate a U.S. intelligence official to a key sanctions position at the Treasury Department, the White House said Sept. 21. Biden will nominate Shannon Corless, who serves as an intelligence and economic security official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to be assistant secretary in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, which oversees the Office of Foreign Assets Control. In her role at the DNI, Corless leads interagency and “foreign partnership activities” related to export controls, investment security, sanctions, supply chains and other trade issues, the White House said. Corless previously served as the director of the DNI’s Investment Security Group, where she worked on investment reviews conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.
Two nominees to lead the Bureau of Industry and Security said they will prioritize stopping illegal technology exports to China and are willing to bypass multilateral controls on certain sensitive technologies if unilateral restrictions are warranted. But Alan Estevez, President Joe Biden’s nominee for BIS undersecretary, and Thea Kendler, the nominee for assistant secretary for export administration, also stressed that export control cooperation with allies is crucial and committed to working to convince trade partners to adopt more controls.