The Treasury Department isn’t doing enough to limit the impacts of U.S. sanctions on humanitarian aid to Venezuela, the Government Accountability Office said in a report. Although Treasury has taken steps to mitigate the sanctions’ impact -- including through general licenses and by responding to individual questions about humanitarian aid -- GAO said the agency doesn’t “systematically track and analyze information from these inquiries” to spot trends or repeating issues. “Without collection and analysis of this information,” the GAO said Feb. 4, “Treasury and its interagency partners may be limited in their ability to develop further actions to ensure that U.S. sanctions do not disrupt humanitarian assistance.”
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is hoping to fund an emergency maritime relief program to help unclog port congestion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and provide relief for U.S. shippers. The Maritime Transportation System Emergency Relief Program, created last year, could provide more resources to terminals that are seeing severe shortages in skilled labor and equipment, and help alleviate the nationwide backups in trucks and container vessels, House members said.
Following meetings with various European leaders, Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal announced high-level India-U.K. and India-EU dialogues on trade and investment. In a joint U.K.-India statement Feb. 8, Goyal and Britain's Trade Secretary Liz Truss announced the launch of an Enhanced Trade Partnership between the two countries. The two met Feb. 6. The move formalizes a deal announced July 24 at the 14th meeting of the India-U.K. Joint Economic and Trade Committee, at which the respective ministers agreed on a road map on trade that would lead to a free trade agreement. The Feb. 8 announcement will serve as a springboard to future negotiations.
The Biden administration announced a slew of appointments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that do not require Senate confirmation, allowing the agency to get its agenda underway as U.S. trade representative nominee Katherine Tai awaits a hearing and a floor vote.
Fourteen senators from both sides of the aisle urged the State Department to increase sanctions pressure on Myanmar by targeting all senior officials, military officials and companies affiliated with the military-led coup last week. The U.S. not only should target leaders, the senators said in a Feb. 5 letter, but also consider sanctioning “companies and conglomerates” controlled by the military. “There is no reason to believe Burma’s military leaders will return the country to democratic rule without strong and sustained international pressure,” the senators said, led by Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's top members. Coordinate sanctions with allies “as soon as possible” and convince the United Nations to investigate human rights violations related to the coup, the letter said. “Only strong, sustained, and multilateral pressure is likely to change the behavior” of Myanmar’s military, the senators wrote.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced the U.S.-Cuba Trade Act of 2021 to establish normal trade relations. “Our nation’s embargo on Cuba is an artifact from the 1960s. To continue this outdated, harmful policy of isolation would be a failure of American leadership,” he said in a Feb. 5 press release. The U.S.-Cuba Trade Act of 2021 would repeal the Helms-Burton Act and the Cuban Democracy Act, and other provisions that affect trade, investment and travel with Cuba. Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., are cosponsors of the bill. Members of Congress have been introducing bills to lift the embargo for more than 10 years.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, put a hold on the commerce secretary nominee over the future of restrictions on Huawei. Gina Raimondo, in written responses to Senate Finance Committee members' questions, said, “I currently have no reason to believe that entities on those lists [the Entity List and the Military End User List] should not be there. If confirmed, I look forward to a briefing on these entities and others of concern.” That was not definitive enough for Cruz, who tweeted Feb. 4 he would lift the hold when the Biden administration “commits” to keeping Huawei on the Entity List. Cruz does not have the power to prevent the Senate from bringing the nomination for a vote, but he could filibuster if there are not at least 60 votes to cut off debate. Most Finance Committee Republicans voted to advance her nomination, so it's quite possible a filibuster could be avoided. Raimondo's nomination is not expected to advance before or during the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
One of the largest impacts felt from the drastic change in mandate and reach of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. in the last few years is how lawyers, business people and investors are viewing the committee. Speaking at a Capitol Forum webinar on Feb. 4, three CFIUS industry experts highlighted how far more resources are being exerted on CFIUS compliance measures than at any time since its inception. This is largely due to the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018, which greatly overhauled CFIUS's responsibilities, including introducing certain mandatory filings for certain foreign transactions (see 1910310053).
Commerce secretary nominee Gina Raimondo was asked several times in written questions from senators after her hearing about how she would balance the need to prevent cutting edge technologies from being shared with adversaries but also allow U.S. semiconductor manufacturers to compete with foreign companies that don't have the same restrictions on selling chips.
In the Senate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is being added to the Finance Committee, the Senate majority leader announced Feb. 2. In the House, Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., and Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., are joining the Trade Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, the committee chairman announced Feb. 2. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., who has been a very active member of the Trade Subcommittee, will now head the Oversight Subcommittee. Republicans added three members to the Ways and Means Committee to replace two members who retired, and to reflect their larger numbers in the House: Reps. Carol Miller, R-W.Va.; Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa.; and Kevin Hern, R-Okla.