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Preference programs. More than 300 companies and associations wrote to Senate Finance Committee leaders June 19 to seek “swift passage” of legislation to renew the Generalized System of Preferences, which expired Dec. 31, 2020. The letter claimed that importers paid at least $3.7 billion in duties on GSP-eligible products between January 2021 and April 2024 and asserted that a program reauthorization should provide for refunds of those duties, which “are not a new, corporate giveaway” but instead of vital importance to small business owners.
The signatories expressed support for the GSP Reform Act (H.R. 7986), which would extend GSP for ten years, provide for refunds of duties paid, and update eligibility criteria as well as the competitive need limitations. They also called for restoring GSP eligibility for India and Turkey, which were terminated from the program in 2019. However, they cautioned against broader country and product eligibility reforms that could “make GSP harder to use, or easier to lose” and thus “push more trade back to China and other non-beneficiaries.”
Regulations. The Sunset Chevron Act (H.R. 8889, introduced June 28 by Rep. Green, R-Tenn.) would require the Government Accountability Office to compile a list of federal regulations that have been upheld by Chevron deference and provide for these rules to begin sunsetting every 30 days on a rolling basis unless they are passed into law by Congress.
Tariffs. H.R. 8912 (introduced June 28 by Rep. Wenstrup, R-Ohio) would temporarily suspend duties on imports of titanium sponge.
Five lawmakers wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai June 28 asking her to include golf carts, personal transportation vehicles, and low-speed vehicles within the scope of electric vehicles that will likely be subject to increased import tariffs beginning later this year.
In a June 21 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, more than two dozen members of Congress urged against changing Vietnam’s status as a non-market economy for purpose of antidumping duty proceedings, which could result in lower AD duties on imports from that country. The lawmakers said that Vietnam “remains a primary example of a top-down, government-controlled economy that has become a significant threat to market-oriented steel producers in the United States” and that the DOC “should not reward Vietnam’s ongoing government intervention throughout the economy, or its recent history of unfair steel trade in the U.S. market, by granting it market economy status.”
Steel. Three Democratic senators wrote to senior Biden administration officials June 24 to oppose Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel, which they said “stands to destabilize our trade enforcement system.” They explained that Nippon Steel products have been included in numerous U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty orders in recent decades and warned that the potential purchase could enable the company to “undermine” future trade enforcement cases against steel imports “from the inside.”
Pharmaceuticals. The Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act (H.R. 8848, introduced June 26 by Rep. Schakowsky, D-Ill.) would allow wholesale distributors, pharmacies, and individuals to import drugs from Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Switzerland.
Defense Trade. H.R. 8892 (introduced June 28 by Rep. Huizenga, R-Mich.) would modify certain provisions relating to bilateral agreements and AUKUS defense trade cooperation under the Arms Export Control Act.
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