An expert on China's electric vehicle manufacturing praised the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives to build U.S. advanced battery manufacturing capacity but told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that completely cutting China out of that sector's supply chain is impractical. The Zero Emissions Transportation Association has made similar arguments (see 2208040045); the Treasury Department has not yet said how the "country of concern" restrictions for EV tax credits will be applied. However, Treasury allows leased cars to avoid all the localization rules.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 7-13:
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., joined by 15 members of the Florida House delegation, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and four House members from Georgia, asked the U.S. trade representative for an update on a private sector industry advisory panel of Southeastern fruit and vegetable producers.
A bipartisan duo introduced a bill in the House that would not allow future Section 232 tariffs or quotas without congressional approval, and would give Congress the ability to end the current steel and aluminum tariffs and quotas.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said he intends to co-sponsor a renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and said he believes the appetite in Congress is "strong" to act before the summer of 2025. AGOA expires Sept. 30, 2025.
The National Foreign Trade Council said Canada's proposed digital services tax "is clearly discriminatory towards U.S. companies," and the bill's introduction is shortsighted.
Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., one of the shrinking number of members of Congress who advocates for engaging with China rather than punishing it, recently published a white paper of his views on how to manage competition with China, how to use both offensive and defensive measures to compete with China, how to improve U.S. governance and competitiveness, and how to identify areas of cooperation.
The titanium sponge working group, convened after a Section 232 report on the product, as an alternative to imposing tariffs or tariff rate quotas, says that eliminating the 15% tariff on titanium sponge could benefit domestic titanium producers.
China's exports of cars have jumped sharply as its domestic car demand has flattened, experts said, but the impacts for U.S. auto production may not repeat what happened to other manufacturing sectors undercut by cheap Chinese imports.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 24-30: