Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., is seeking more colleagues to join a letter asking the administration to move Switzerland to the front of the line for trade negotiations. Four other Democrats and two Republicans, including fellow Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, are on board. Beyer noted that Switzerland is the country's ninth-largest trading partner. "A Swiss FTA presents an opportunity to negotiate a benchmark-setting agreement with a committed and open partner known for its high standards for labor and environmental protection," he said. Beyer was previously the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland.
China criticized a bill passed by the U.S. Senate that urges the Trump administration to sanction Chinese officials responsible for the oppression of the country’s Uyghur population.
The U.S. and Turkey created sectoral committees to reach the two sides’ $100 billion trade goal, the two countries said at a Sept. 10 press conference. The committees will help with the goal -- initially announced by President Donald Trump during his June G-20 meeting with Turkey -- by bringing together Turkish and American business circles to promote trade, according to a report from the Daily Sabah. The committees will be run by the two countries' trade ministries, the report said.
The trade staff of the House Ways and Means Committee told Democrats who are anxious for a ratification vote on the new NAFTA that the rewrite "will be ready for a vote as soon as it is ready; no sooner, and also no later," in a memo that was structured as an imagined dialogue between a member who wants a vote and the committee chairman, who has a big say on when that vote happens.
The State Department sanctioned two Russian officials for human rights violations, the agency said in a Sept. 10 press release. The officials, Vladimir Petrovich Yermolayev, the head of the Investigative Committee in Surgut, Russia, and Stepan Vladimirovich Tkach, a senior investigator for the committee, were involved in the torture of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the city, the press release said.
Incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sept. 10 named Paul Hogan of Ireland the European Commissioner for trade for her 2019-24 term, a European Union press release said. Hogan, the current commissioner for agriculture, “is known as a hard and a fair negotiator,” von der Leyen said at a press conference introducing the new commission. The commission president-elect also named Paolo Gentiloni of Italy as commissioner for economy, where he will take over a portfolio that includes the EU Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union, according to a document on the EU website. The European Parliament must give its consent to the nominations, after holding a series of hearings within the relevant parliamentary committees, the EU press release said.
The Government Accountability Office found that the State and Defense departments’ processes for reviewing proposed arms transfers are appropriate and aligned with conventional arms transfer policies, the GAO said in a Sept. 9 report. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., requested the GAO review the administration's arms transfer policies. Menendez is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
The European Union Permanent Representatives Committee will extend sanctions on people and entities designated for threatening the sovereignty of Ukraine, according to a post on the EU Sanctions blog. The extended sanctions are awaiting approval by the EU Council before they expire on Sept. 15, the post said.
President Donald Trump’s order to reduce the number of advisory committees will not affect Commerce’s committees involved with export controls reform, a top Commerce official confirmed. The executive order, issued in June, directed the executive branch's departments and agencies to cut down their advisory boards by one-third by Sept. 30. Speaking during a Sept. 5 Materials Technical Advisory Committee, Rich Ashooh, Commerce’s assistant secretary for export administration, confirmed that several Commerce committees dealing with export controls are safe because they are authorized by (see 1908080033) the Export Control Reform Act.
The Commerce Department is aiming to publish its advance notice of proposed rulemaking for foundational technologies before the end of September, said Rich Ashooh, the assistant secretary for export administration. “That’s kind of the goal,” Ashooh said, speaking during a Sept. 5 Materials Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “It’s really important for us to get there.”