Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., introduced a bill that, if it passed, would create a working group to evaluate the food safety threat posed by beef and poultry imported from Brazil. The working group would make recommendations to the Agriculture secretary on whether Brazilian beef and poultry exports to the U.S. should be banned.
Nine Democrats, led by Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, introduced a bill that would make it more difficult for trophy hunters to bring skins, tusks or other evidence of the spoils back to the United States. H.R. 2245, the CECIL Act, which stands for Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large Animal Trophies Act, is named after Cecil the Lion, an animal killed in a Zimbabwean national park in 2015. The bill would require the Interior secretary to evaluate whether the foreign country where the animal was hunted has a species management plan that "addresses existing threats to the species; provides a significant conservation benefit to the species; formally coordinates with neighboring countries; and "ensures that any take is sustainable and does not contribute to the species’ decline in either the short-term or long-term according to current population estimates derived through the use of the best available science."
A bipartisan bill that would prohibit importation, exportation and interstate trade of bear viscera or products advertised as containing bear viscera was introduced in the House of Representatives on April 10. Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif.; Rodney Davis, R-Ill.; Ann Kuster, D-N.H.; and Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., co-sponsored H.R. 2264. The Bear Protection Act of 2019 says, "thousands of bears in Asia are cruelly confined in small cages to be milked for their bile, and the wild Asian bear population has declined significantly in recent years, as a result of habitat loss and poaching due to a strong demand for bear viscera used in traditional medicines and cosmetics." It also said that while most American black bear populations are stable or increasing, some bears have been poached for their viscera, and if that commercial trade grew, it could threaten American bear populations.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, the Florida Republican who's ranking member of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, is co-sponsoring a bill that would impose sanctions on companies that make and send fentanyl to the U.S. Buchanan, joined by Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., introduced the bill April 10. The bill, H.R. 2226, notes that the Treasury Department used the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act to sanction a synthetic opioid trafficker in April 2018, but says "precision economic and financial sanctions policy tools are needed to address the flow of synthetic opioids." The bill is a companion to a bipartisan Senate bill introduced earlier in the month by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (see 1904040028). It would require the administration to publicly identify the companies that are selling fentanyl to dealers, bar imports of any kind from those companies, freeze their assets, deny visas to its officials and cut them off from the U.S. banking system. Congress would dedicate $600 million for investigations to uncover which companies are responsible.
Some experts are expecting President Donald Trump to announce a tariff plan in mid-May for autos -- even if he suspends implementation, as he did initially for Europe and NAFTA partners on steel and aluminum. But a new analysis says he has many ways to put off revealing his cards. The Section 232 statute gives the president the option to deliberate for an additional 180 days after the first 90-day deadline -- that would move the decision date to Nov. 14. Peterson Institute for International Economics economist Jeremie Cohen-Setton wrote that there are other options for Trump to keep holding the possibility of tariffs over European negotiators' heads without laying out exactly what would be taxed and at what level. He could ask for a supplemental analysis, or another agency to weigh in, which in past actions delayed a decision by more than a year and a half. He could terminate this investigation, but then quickly restart it. "A Section 232 investigation on oil was, for example, first initiated in 1973, then in 1975, and again resurrected in 1978," Cohen-Setton wrote.
Clete Willems, former deputy director of the National Economic Council who represented the U.S. during China trade talks this year, will join Akin Gump as a partner in June, the firm announced April 25. “The trade landscape has rarely been as important to companies around the world as it is now, and Clete will be an invaluable resource for clients seeking to navigate this terrain,” said Brian Pomper, co-head of Akin Gump’s public law and policy practice.
The Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee have joined together in a third letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that lays out specific shortcomings of the new NAFTA in areas they care about. The first two letters addressed labor and the environment. This one focuses on enforceability of all commitments in the deal. According to Democratic House staffers, there will be a letter issued about biologics, as well.
The Senate Finance Committee chairman said that both China and the U.S. will step down Section 301 tariffs and the retaliatory tariffs in phases, with each side lifting the tariff at roughly the same time if they believe the other side is complying with a trade deal in good faith. He said the reductions will probably be done in tranches. "Over how long a period of time, I don't know," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters on a call on April 24. "But there won't be a 100 percent reduction of tariffs on the day the agreement's signed."
Quotas are worse than tariffs, as importers are left without even the choice of paying more for the goods they want, the Free Trade Initiative of the National Taxpayers Union said in a policy brief published April 23. That's for absolute quotas, as have been implemented for steel from South Korea, Argentina and Brazil. The brief notes that quotas can be highly bureaucratic -- there are 54 categories of quotas for steel from those three countries. "As bad as tariffs are, at least they generate revenue for the federal government, as President Trump has repeatedly pointed out," the brief says. "In contrast, quotas drive up prices by restricting imports, but the federal government doesn’t collect a dime." The U.S. uses tariff rate quotas for sugar, which the brief also considers worse than tariffs. "As a result of tariff-rate quotas on sugar imports, Americans pay twice the world price for sugar," NTU's Bryan Riley wrote.
Dozens of agriculture trade groups and companies wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to tell him that "the U.S. food and agriculture industry is increasingly disadvantaged by competing regional and bilateral agreements with Japan that have already been implemented, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the European Union-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EU-Japan EPA)."