Mara Lee

The United States Hide, Skin and Leather Association and the American Apparel and Footwear Association called for changes to the 9802 program, in an opinion piece in The Hill on Oct 14. Those groups say the value of a hide sent from America to China to be made into shoes should be deducted from the value subject to tariffs when a U.S. firm imports the shoes. Similarly, nylon yarn that will be made into fabric in India should be deducted from the value. "If a company uses a U.S. component that is further processed abroad before it is assembled into an article, it is disqualified," they explained, which means that yarn doesn't count, since it is made into fabric, nor do hides, which must be tanned before they're made into leather. There are no more tanneries in the U.S., so hides that will be in shoes, furniture or clothing are sent offshore unprocessed.

Companies moving containers through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will no longer have to pay congestion surcharges and instead will pay a flat fee of either $31.52 per 20-foot equivalent unit or $63.04 for other size containers starting Nov. 19, PierPass said. Companies will need to register with PierPass if they have not already, because all trucks bringing containers out of the ports will need to make an appointment. Nine of the 12 terminals at the two adjacent ports already use appointment systems, so most trucking firms serving the ports are already using these systems, the press release announcing the change said. The marine terminals will offer common appointment windows and common last appointment times for each shift.

Three Democratic senators wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, asking it to do a better job of enforcing its "Made in the USA" standards. "In the cases of Nectar Sleep, Sandpiper/PiperGear USA, and Patriot Puck specifically, we are concerned that the Commission chose to forgo financial penalties and did not require admissions of guilt," they wrote. "In all three instances, the companies brazenly and fraudulently affixed 'Made in the USA' labels to foreign-made products, most of which were imported from China." The three companies settled with the FTC in September, but did not admit guilt. Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote: "If the consequences of misusing the 'Made in the USA' label do not include paying fines or admitting wrongdoing, it is unlikely that bad actors [such as these] will be deterred from using the same deceptive tactics to sell their products in the future."

The International Trade Commission is seeking testimony and submissions for its analysis of how the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will affect industry, consumers and the economy as a whole. The ITC is charged with producing such a report for Congress to use as it decides whether to ratify any new trade agreement. It must do so within 105 days of the president entering into the agreement.

Dennis Shea, the U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, says that China's interventions in its economy make it incompatible with the rule-based international trading system, and that more countries need to speak out about it. The U.S., the European Union and Japan are working on a common view of what the problems are with China, and what might be done to encourage changes. After that agreement is reached, they will be looking for more allies. Shea warned during a presentation Oct. 12 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that "friends of the system," as about 40 countries are known in Geneva, "want to be middle-of-the-roaders when they really need to pick a lane."

The changes to Mexican labor law that would end captive unions are definitely going to happen before the Jan. 1 deadline described in an annex to the labor chapter of the new NAFTA agreement, according to Jesus Seade, who served as chief negotiator for the incoming Mexican president. "That chapter, more than any, was extensively discussed with the legislature," he said. "Mexico has what we call 'cowboy trade unions,' which are basically bogus trade unions, corrupt, in cahoots with the local authorities. Now all of that is going out the window."

Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican who represents a state with steel mills and many steel-consuming factories, said he's meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Oct. 10 to ask him what his plan is to lift the steel and aluminum tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada. Portman, who is a former USTR himself, said in an Oct. 10 interview before the meeting that "it seems to me that'd be something important to resolve."

America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (S. 3021), which would provide funding for navigation and dredging improvements at ports around the country, passed the Senate 99-1 Oct. 10 and goes to the president's desk for signing. The bill, which also would begin feasibility studies for dozens of flood control and dredging projects, provides funding to improve navigation in southeast Arkansas; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and in Seattle's Harbor, as well as to extend the Galveston, Texas, harbor channel. Across all those projects, the cost would be nearly $300 million.

When the head of the Canada Institute asked Canadian negotiators in the NAFTA talks what they were most proud of, they said modernization at the border. "The customs facilitation, the regulatory [change] makes a big difference," said Laura Dawson, director of the Wilson Center's Canada Institute. "Origin certificates used to have to be faxed to the border. The fact that they're going to use iPads is a huge win."

Previous presidents gave lip service to curbing China's unfair trade practices, but never followed through, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said during a Q&A at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. "And President Trump is following through. Don't blame Trump, blame the system he inherited." Kudlow, who called Trump a disrupter, acknowledged that he is "more of a doctrinaire free trader" than his boss. But, he said, the China problem can't be left alone. "China has played fast and loose with the rules," Kudlow said Oct. 4. "The World Trade Organization needs reforms to enforce those rules. China is not a developing country anymore."