House Select Committee on China Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., asked Homeland Security Investigations to look into whether a surge in drone imports from Malaysia is due to transshipment from China, and asked the administration to hike tariffs on Chinese unmanned aerial vehicles, either by increasing Section 301 tariffs on the product, by initiating an antidumping/countervailing duty investigation, and/or opening a Section 232 investigation.
A House member who is running for the Senate in Indiana asked the Commerce Department to initiate an investigation on the import of electric vehicles and electric vehicle batteries made anywhere in the world.
Ten senators have introduced a bill to require that the administration reinstate 25% tariffs on Mexican steel imports for at least one year, because they say that Mexico is not honoring the 2019 agreement that lifted Section 232 tariffs on Mexico and Canada. A companion bill was also introduced in the House.
U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commissioner Kimberly Glas, calling e-commerce "a superhighway of the Wild West," asked witnesses at a hearing on Chinese exports and product safety if de minimis is a major contributor to unsafe products.
Mexican Economy Secretary Raquel Buenrostro said in Mexico this week that if the U.S. reimposes 25% tariffs on Mexican steel exports over alleged surges, Mexico will retaliate. Mexico's steel exports are only 2.5% of the U.S. market, and U.S. steel exports are 14% of the Mexican market, so the U.S. has more to lose if Section 232 tariffs on Mexican steel return, she said.
With no legislative action on a proposal to end China's eligibility for de minimis shipments, one of its authors, Sen. Sherrod Brown, is asking the Biden administration to end de minimis treatment for all e-commerce purchases, or, at least, stop de minimis treatment for goods subject to partner government agency review, products that are trade priorities, and goods subject to Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs.
Sens. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai urging them to take action to “immediately and meaningfully limit the volume of Mexican steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) being imported into the United States.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a final rule for interagency review that could make changes to the exclusion process for Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. BIS sent the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Feb. 15, about six months after it published proposed changes aimed at improving the accuracy and efficiency of exclusion requests and objections (see 2308250035).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that talking about tariffs more than other aspects of trade policy is, to a large degree, "a red herring," and said reducing U.S. trade policy "down to a conversation about tariffs is really unfair."