If a bill just introduced becomes law, importers of fossil fuels, refined petroleum products, petrochemicals, fertilizer, hydrogen, adipic acid, cement, iron and steel, aluminum, glass, pulp, paper, lime and gypsum products and ethanol would have to pay a duty at the border based on the carbon intensity of either the industry in the home country, the product, if a specific petition was made, or an economywide carbon intensity measure, if no reliable data is available by industry.

Seventeen senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are asking the U.S. trade representative to reach "an expedited agreement with the European Union" so that tariffs don't return on exported whiskey Jan. 1. That tariff would be 50% under the schedule the EU imposed as retaliation for the Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminum exports.

Three days after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo suggested her Bureau of Industry and Security needs more funding to handle a surge in export licensing requests (see 2312040041), three key House Republicans said on Dec. 5 that BIS must strengthen its export controls before they will support a budget increase for the agency.

A bill that would ban the import or export of marine species that pose "a substantial risk of harm to the sustainability of such species or the coral reef ecosystem of such species," or of species that have poor survivorship in transport or captivity, was introduced by Reps. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, and Jared Huffman, D-Calif.

Four Republican senators have called on the Commerce Department to reverse its decision to remove China’s Institute of Forensic Science from the Entity List, saying the easing of trade sanctions on the scientific lab was premature.

A dozen House Democrats, led by Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., recently introduced a bill that asks the Biden administration to coordinate with Mexico to increase outbound inspections by CBP on the land border with Mexico, with the aim of reducing the number of guns smuggled from the U.S. to Mexico.

More than 60 House members, led by senior Ways and Means Committee Democrat Rep. Mike Thompson of California and Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to negotiate an end to China's retaliatory tariffs on American wine, and to negotiate lower tariffs in India and Vietnam, where American wine faces 150% and 50% tariffs, respectively.

The State Department should “immediately” update its Cuba Restricted List to capture affiliates of listed entities that are evading U.S. sanctions, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a Nov. 28 letter to the agency. Although the list was created in 2017 to block U.S. people and companies from doing business with Cuban government-controlled entities, those entities have since created “dozens of new hotels and companies that fall outside the scope” the restrictions, Rubio said.

A House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy and Regulatory Affairs hearing focused on the need for more domestic mining of critical minerals, but administration witnesses noted that imports -- and subsidizing processing of domestically mined minerals -- are just as essential to uninterrupted supply.

Senate Republicans reintroduced a bill this week that would sanction the Yemen-based Houthi militant group as a foreign terrorist organization, reversing a Biden administration decision in 2021 to revoke the group’s designation (see 2102100016). The bill, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and sponsored by six other Republicans, would subject the Houthis to strict financial blocking measures and sanction the group’s leaders. The Biden administration revoked the sanctions because of concerns the measures were hindering humanitarian aid to the region.