Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked the Biden administration to offer more general licenses to Cuban small businesses so they can avoid the sanctions on Cuba. Wyden, who visited Cuba in late December, said he'll be talking with Senate colleagues about how to help the Cuban private sector grow. He said in a Jan. 4 press release that a stronger private sector could both lay the foundations for "fundamental political and economic reforms" in Cuba and reduce Cuban migration to the U.S. -- which was nearly 250,000 in 2022.
Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Leader-elect, told his colleagues in a Dec. 30 letter that he plans to bring 11 pieces of legislation for a vote during the first two weeks of the 118th Congress, including a bill that would establish a Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., one of the leading voices for free trade in the Democratic caucus, and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., a free-trade purist in the Republican caucus, issued a joint paper of recommendations on trade on Dec. 29, just before they were both leaving office.
Crowell attorneys in Brussels note that the new EU regulation that prohibits both export and import of certain commodities if they come from land that was recently deforested (see 2212070039) will affect more than high-risk countries such as Indonesia, Brazil or Ivory Coast.
On the last day of the current Congress, retiring Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced a bill that would ask the Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to analyze the economic integration between the U.S. and China in priority sectors, and the U.S. government's views of how that integration should change over the next five to 19 years.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the U.S. is requesting new dispute settlement consultations with Canada over its tariff-rate quota allocations, because as it has talked with Canada over the last seven months, "U.S. concerns have only increased."
As World Trade Organization members continue to struggle to decide how to change the trade-related intellectual property waiver conditions, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai asked the International Trade Commission to produce a study on how the global market for vaccines, diagnostics and treatment has been affected by the current approach on intellectual property. The USTR said stakeholders and members of Congress disagree, "even on basic questions around whether there is adequate global supply of diagnostics and therapeutics. These interested parties also diverge on whether extending these flexibilities to diagnostics and therapeutics would in fact improve access, particularly in non-high-income countries, or undermine innovation."
Two readouts from the administration say that Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White and Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves told a top Canadian official that they are concerned about proposed legislation that would affect digital streaming services, tax digital services and, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, discriminate against U.S. businesses.
After two days of feedback from delegations at the World Trade Organization, as part of a regular trade review (see 2212140071), Ambassador Maria Pagan said she was glad that many are appreciating the discussions American diplomats are having with their counterparts on dispute settlement reform.
The Inflation Reduction Act creates opportunities for more North American economic integration, according to a Mexican diplomat and a top General Motors official.