Industry and government witnesses told Congress that using blockchain markers could help make shipping more efficient and make fraud more difficult. But the lack of an international standard so far makes implementing a system difficult, they told members conducting a joint hearing on the technology's use in international trade.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
The process for importers to get product exclusions from Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum items is too slow, and too burdensome, according to 39 members of the House of Representatives, from both parties, who have suggestions for how to change it. Their letter, sent May 7 to the Department of Commerce, says that retroactive relief from tariffs should date back to the date of submission, not the date of posting, unless the submission was not initially complete. In that case, the lawmakers say, the refund should be from the date the submission was complete, rather than the date it was publicly posted.
The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that his replies on how the department weighed the issues before recommending Section 232 tariffs were incomplete -- and said that if his next letter isn't an improvement, the committee may have to consider compelling his testimony. The letter, sent May 3, gave Ross two weeks to reply. "Clearly, these tariffs will have a much more far-reaching effect on downstream industries and consumer prices than explained in your response," Senators Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., wrote. They said Ross failed to provide detailed cost-benefit analyses on the tariffs' effects, or analyses of prior tariffs' effects on downstream industries or prices. They also said he declined to say how the agency is going to measure success of the tariffs.
The U.S. has asked China to reduce the bilateral trade deficit by $200 billion by the end of 2020, according to an eight-point list of demands that leaked to journalists during two days of trade talks in Beijing. The Wall Street Journal has reported that in addition to expected positions on intellectual property, investment barriers in China, forced tech transfer, and subsidies to high-tech firms, the document also asked China to agree not to retaliate against U.S. farmers.
President Donald Trump's proclamations on the latest extensions to country exemptions on the Section 232 tariffs (see 1804300064) will be published in the Federal Register on May 7. The proclamations on steel and on aluminum say that while Canada, Mexico and the European Union face a June 1 deadline to agree to "satisfactory alternative means" to ameliorate the national security threat their imports cause, Australia, Brazil and Argentina do not have an expiration date on their exemptions. The president said since those countries have reached agreements in principle, he didn't think a deadline was necessary. But if those agreements are not finalized promptly, he reserves the right to impose tariffs.
American exporters are confronting new non-tariff barriers in China, even on products that were already targets of higher tariffs in retaliation for U.S. tariffs. For instance, China's customs officials decided that the China Certification and Inspection Corporation North America was not adequately enforcing its higher purity standards on scrap metal, and on May 3, said that CCIC cannot issue any certificates for the next month.
More than 1,100 economists signed a letter to Congress and the president asking the government not to make the same mistake it did in 1930, when Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. The letter, published May 3, said trade is significantly more important than it was in 1930, but that the fundamental economic principles that argue against tariffs have not changed in the nearly 90 years since then. The letter quotes a 1930 letter, signed by 1,028 economists, that asked Congress to reject Smoot-Hawley. Tariffs "would raise the cost of living and injure the great majority of our citizens," the original letter said. Exporters would also suffer from retaliatory tariffs. The signatories include economists from the left, right and center, and 15 Nobel Prize winners.
When Trump administration officials are in Beijing this week, there is going to be "a lot of stuff that's getting thrown at the wall," according to Evan Feigenbaum, vice chairman of the Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago. Feigenbaum, speaking on a panel about China's policies, said the Trump administration is complaining about bilateral deficits, intellectual property theft, Made in China 2025, non-tariff trade barriers and Chinese state-run firms buying U.S. tech companies. While most of the issues underlined in the Section 301 investigation are in the non-tariff trade barriers and IP theft areas, experts at the Washington International Trade Association event disagreed on whether President Donald Trump would declare victory after only a pledge to reduce the bilateral trade deficit.
Because the U.S. has stepped away from a leadership role in free trade, Japan has had to step in, Japanese politicians told an audience at the Brookings Institution. That's why it worked to save the Trans-Pacific Partnership after the Trump administration pulled out. Politicians and experts speaking on the panel on the future of U.S.-Japan trade said the TPP would have been more effective for dealing with China's intellectual property rights violations than the course the U.S. is on now.
Mexico's auto industry is against the U.S. proposal to require higher-wage work as part of the NAFTA rules of origin that make it possible for Canadian and Mexican assembly plants to sell cars into the U.S. duty free. The Wall Street Journal recently quoted the head of the Mexican auto parts manufacturers' trade group, Eduardo Solis: "'The U.S. proposal isn’t acceptable. The percentage, the transitions, the restrictions. You have to understand the U.S. proposal is like putting padlocks on padlocks,' Mr. Solis said of the two-layered rule of origin. 'Imagine a car that does comply with the percentage, but doesn’t comply with all the core parts. Or you comply with core parts but don’t meet the steel and aluminum requirements. Or you comply with the first three but you don’t meet the wage requirements.'"