The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 16-22:
The co-chairmen of the U.S.-India Caucus in the Senate did not bring up restoring India to the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program when asked about the possibility of a U.S.-India trade package during a program hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Nov. 18. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., instead said he hopes the Joe Biden administration will pursue a technology alliance with India. He also said he thinks withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- which does not include India -- was a great mistake. “Both political parties bear some blame for that,” he said. Sen John Cornyn, R-Texas, agreed on TPP. “We’ll see what happens in Georgia,” he said, referring to the run-off elections for two Republican incumbents vying for the two U.S. Senate seats in that state later this year. “We may have divided government, it may require us all to work together.”
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 9-13 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
While it seems clear that Joe Biden wants to “team up with our allies” to confront China, less clear is how that will work in reality, Mayer Brown international trade lawyer Tim Keeler said during a Nov. 17 Mayer Brown webinar about trade policy in the incoming administration. Keeler, who is a former chief of staff in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, said a majority of Congress believes the Section 301 tariffs have been a source of leverage, while the European Union thinks the tariffs violated World Trade Organization rules.
Although President-elect Joe Biden has said he wants to focus on domestic issues before turning to trade, Brian Pomper, a former chief international trade counsel when the Senate Finance Committee was controlled by Democrats, said he's going to have to deal with trade right away if the Trump administration imposes tariffs on France on Jan. 1 over its digital services tax proposal.
There are still three pending Section 232 investigations, and the one on downstream electrical steel products is already at the White House, so you shouldn't be surprised if the Trump administration hikes tariffs on more products on the way out the door, according to Halie Craig, the former trade staffer for Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. Craig, who was speaking on behalf of the R Street Institute, a pro-market think tank, also said she wonders if there will be more action against China, since the country is not on track to meet its phase one purchase targets.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 2-6 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said that while he doesn't know if the lame-duck Congress will do anything other than pass a bill to fund the government, and another COVID-19 relief package, he is convinced that both the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program “would pass easily as suspension bills.” Suspension bills, like the unanimous consent process in the Senate, do not require floor time, only that no one objects.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said a renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program could happen either by packaging the bill with an omnibus spending bill, or, if Congress just passes another temporary spending bill, by attachment to a tax extenders bill.
Almost two-thirds of the Thai products that will soon be ineligible for the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program are not currently exported to the U.S., Thailand's director-general of the Department of International Trade Promotion told Thai reporters. Keerati Rushchano said 147 products will be affected, including steering wheels, auto wheels, transmission boxes, plastic glasses frames, chemicals and latex mattresses.