Fifty senators, including 42 of 53 Republicans, wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer this week, asking that the administration “begin the formal process of negotiating a comprehensive trade agreement with Taiwan.” The first step of the formal process would be notifying Congress, then soliciting input into negotiating priorities.
A task force led by Republican House members recommended more trade agreements, engagement at the World Trade Organization, and “a strategic plan for Phase Two negotiations” with China to address distorting subsidies, dominance of state-owned enterprises that dictate the terms of trade and data, and forced tech transfer and joint venture requirements. It also said the U.S. should be aggressive in enforcing the China phase one agreement, particularly on forced tech transfer, intellectual property and barriers to agriculture imports.
Three Democratic senators introduced a bill that would impose more restrictions on arms sales to protect against human rights violations. The bill -- introduced Sept. 24 by New Jersey's Bob Menendez, Vermont's Patrick Leahy and Virginia's Tim Kaine -- would amend the Arms Export Control Act by imposing more conditions before certain arms sales can be completed.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his fellow New York colleague, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, urging them to monitor the elimination of Class 6 and Class 7 pricing programs in Canadian dairy, the avoidance of geographical indications for cheese names in Mexico, and the implementation of more generous tariff rate quotas for dairy imports in Canada. “While the new tariff-rate quota commitments were intended to provide U.S. dairy producers with greater access to Canada’s dairy market, it is our understanding that Canada’s announced TRQs place U.S. producers at a disadvantage and are inconsistent with the market access provisions secured in agreement,” they wrote Sept. 15.
Two Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats urged the Treasury Department to impose updated Russia Magnitsky Act sanctions, saying the administration failed to announce a new round of designations last year. In a Sept. 9 letter, Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Ben Cardin of Maryland said new sanctions are overdue. “[O]ur expectation has been that [the Office of Foreign Assets Control] announces annual designations by the close of each calendar year,” the senators said. “[W]e still do not have the 2019 round of Russia Magnitsky designations from the Administration. To this effect, we urge the release of a robust and credible list of designations immediately.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urged the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to review the potential purchase of Pennsylvania-based GNC Holdings by Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, a state-controlled Chinese pharmaceutical company. Rubio said the purchase falls within CFIUS’s purview because it involves a Chinese company acquiring sensitive data on “millions” of GNC Holdings’ customers and retail locations “on and around military installations” across the U.S.
Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin should sanction Russians involved in ongoing interference in the 2020 U.S. elections, a group of Democratic senators said in a Sept. 3 letter. They pointed to the public release of information by the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center that describes activities of “Kremlin-linked actors” attempting to sway opinion about President Donald Trump's Democratic opponent in the presidential race, Joe Biden. “We thus urge you to draw upon the conclusions of the Intelligence Community to identify and target for sanctions all those determined to be responsible for ongoing election interference, including any actors within the government of the Russian Federation, any Russian actors determined to be directly responsible, and those acting on their behalf or providing material or financial support for their efforts,” they said. The group, led by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, also provided Mnuchin “additional classified information through separate channels,” according to a news release.
A bipartisan group of senators urged the Trump administration to expand sanctions on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, saying current restrictions have not done enough to curb corruption and human rights abuses there. The sanctions should include additional designations of DRC government officials and increased restrictions on officials who are creating “new companies” to avoid U.S. sanctions, nine senators said in an Aug. 17 letter to Treasure Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Idaho's two senators and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., have asked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Agriculture Department to consider initiating a dispute with Mexico over the restriction on fresh potatoes from the U.S. The letter, sent Aug. 18, notes that Mexico had agreed to allow fresh potatoes to be sold beyond a 16-mile U.S.-Mexico border zone (see 14052305), but that Mexican potato interests sued to stop the liberalization. That case is still pending. A House Republican from Colorado asked the administration last year to push Mexico on this issue (see 1909270061).
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Taiwan's an attractive free trading partner but not as important to exporters as China is. “I'm for a free trade agreement with Taiwan, but I wouldn't want that to stand in the way of a phase two deal with China,” he told reporters on a conference call Aug. 17. China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, and considers it part of China, not an independent country. Taiwan's president recently said he'd like negotiations to begin on an FTA (see 2008130010), and 161 House members have argued for opening negotiations with Taiwan (see 1912200014).