Eliminating Thailand's eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences program, because of a complaint from pork producers, would hurt U.S. importers more than Thai businesses, one witness said, and would be unlikely to convince the country to allow pigs fed with ractopamine to be imported. China and the European Union also ban meat that was fed the growth-enhancing drug. Dan Anthony, testifying on behalf of the GSP Action Committee, told the panel of government officials that they should put great weight on the potential harm to U.S. importers as they make their decision. He gave the example of a 25-person company that imports from Thailand, and had to pay $60,000 to $70,000 a month in tariffs during the two years GSP was not in force. Once it was renewed, the North Carolina company hired 17 full-time employees, and today, employs 70 people.
The World Customs Organization published a list of changes in the upcoming 2022 version of the Harmonized System tariff nomenclature, it said in a press release. The 351 sets of amendments include 77 affecting tariff provisions for agriculture, food and tobacco, 58 in the chemical sector, 31 in the wood sector, 21 for textiles, 27 for base metals, 63 in the machinery, electrical and electronic goods sector, and 22 affecting the transport sector, the WCO said. The amendments were recommended by the WCO’s Harmonized System Committee in June, and took effect in January after a six-month period passed with no objections to the proposals by WCO member states (see 2001080064). The changes must be implemented in the tariff schedules of WCO members, including the U.S., by Jan. 1, 2022.
President Donald Trump, in a signing ceremony Jan. 29, said he would be ending the devastation that NAFTA brought and said that its replacement will strengthen what he called the country's blue-collar boom, “delivering massive gains for the loyal citizens of our nation.” Democrats, who were not invited to the White House ceremony, during their own press conferences ahead of the signing, emphasized how much they'd changed what the president submitted to them, by strengthening labor enforcement and environmental provisions, and removing patent protections for certain kinds of prescription drugs.
The Commerce Department again postponed the first meeting of its Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee and may not reschedule it until March, a Commerce official said. The meeting, which was originally scheduled for Dec. 4, 2019,was initially postponed to January as the agency faced delays in issuing members their security clearances (see 1911200045). But the problem persisted, according to Anita Zinzuvadia, a licensing officer with the Bureau of Industry and Security, who said Commerce canceled the January meeting.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, as he talked about attending the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement signing ceremony, acknowledged that there are a number of steps before the NAFTA replacement can come into force. He said on a Jan. 28 phone call with reporters that he thinks Canada will ratify “probably within the next 30 days,” but then all parties will have to show how they “will be able to carry out their USMCA obligations so that this can enter into force.” Here at home, uniform regulations for the new rules of origin have to be promulgated before the U.S. can certify it's ready for USMCA. Still, Grassley said, Trump will be running his re-election campaign on replacing NAFTA. “I'm glad he can say that, and I'm willing to say it for him, too,” he said. “He likes to brag, and this is legitimately something to brag about.”
There will be more trade uncertainty in 2020 than in 2019 despite a phase one deal with China, trade experts said during a Jan. 22 panel hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. As trade tensions with Europe come to the foreground and as the U.S. potentially negotiates a more comprehensive deal with Japan, one expert said, the administration will not have enough time and resources to start on phase two of the deal with China as it tries to implement the first phase. Another panelist said the U.S. and China will likely come to a “narrow” phase two deal as the election approaches, but that deal will not provide relief for the international trade environment.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 13 aircrafts belonging to Petroleos de Venezuela, Venezuela’s state-run and sanctioned energy company, Treasury said in a Jan. 21 press release. The aircrafts have been used for travel for senior members of the Nicolas Maduro regime and have “operated in an unsafe and unprofessional manner in proximity to U.S. military aircraft,” Treasury said.
The tariffs on billions of dollars worth of European goods because the World Trade Organization found the EU illegally subsidized Airbus puts Europe in a position where it will need to take similar action, assuming the WTO rules that state tax credits for Boeing also distorted trade. “This is where I don't want to be,” European Union Commissioner Phil Hogan said during a press roundtable with reporters late Jan. 16.
Akin Gump hired Hagir Elawad, previously legislative affairs director for the United Arab Emirates Embassy in the U.S., as a senior policy advisor in the firm's international trade practice, it said in a news release. While at the embassy, she worked on “a wide array of issues, including sanctions, export controls, aviation and aerospace, Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States matters,” the firm said.
Four Senate committees reported the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement out, clearing the way for a floor vote Jan. 16. The Foreign Relations Committee and Commerce Committee had voice votes. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 22-1 in favor, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, independent senator from Vermont, the only no vote, though Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who previously voted no in the Finance Committee, was not present and did not vote by proxy. In the Appropriations Committee, 29 senators voted for the implementing bill, and two voted no -- Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.