The Biden administration should better use sanctions to convince the Mexican government to take stronger actions against drug cartels, Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote in a June 21 letter to the Treasury and State departments. The lawmakers, led by Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the committee’s top Republican, said Mexico has turned a “blind eye” toward its cartels, and the Biden administration should sanction state and local Mexican officials “who directly support or enable" them.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaking at an American Compass event this week on Capitol Hill, said he's worried that the pervasiveness of U.S. sanctions could move Brazil, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, India and others away from using the dollar. "And I've been a supporter of sanctions," he said. "But at some point, you sanction enough people, and you create this entire marketplace that's sanctioned," and that creates an incentive to try to find a way around the sanctions by buying goods in China's yuan.
House Select Committee on China Chair Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., is asking the Commerce Department for export licensing information involving Chinese companies with ties to Beijing’s expanding “signals intelligence” presence in Cuba. In a June 20 letter to Commerce and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Gallagher said China’s reported effort to expand its military and spy facilities in Cuba (see 2306130062) is likely being “aided” by Chinese telecommunications companies, including those that have violated U.S. export controls to acquire American intellectual property.
A bipartisan bill introduced in the House this week could lead to new export restrictions on electronic waste. The bill, introduced by Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., aims to ensure the waste doesn’t become “the source of counterfeit goods that may reenter military and civilian electronics supply chains” in the U.S. The full text of the bill wasn’t yet available. Congress has considered similar export restrictions on e-waste in recent years (see 1909190041 and 2202030062).
A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate this week could allow the U.S. to better target sanctions evasion by rewarding information leading to the arrest or conviction of evaders. The Sanctions Evasion Whistleblower Rewards Act, introduced in part by Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would expand the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program to offer rewards for “information about the identity or location of individuals and entities that defy sanctions imposed” by the U.S. or the U.N., the lawmakers said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and the committee's top Republican, Mike Crapo of Idaho, asked President Joe Biden to press India on an array of trade irritants for U.S. exporters, including sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions that discriminate against growers, restrictions on biotechnology, and high tariffs on agriculture imports, including "apples, blueberries, cherries, dairy, nuts, pears, chickpeas, lentils, potatoes, and alcoholic beverages."
The chairmen of the House Small Business Committee and the House Select Committee on China are asking for a detailed briefing by the end of June on DOJ's efforts to combat Chinese intellectual property theft.
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., introduced a bill last week that could lead to new sanctions against people or entities tied to “forced organ harvesting” in China. The text of the bill, which so far has seven additional Republican co-sponsors, wasn’t yet available.
The Treasury Department should “assess” whether the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. has the jurisdiction to review the Saudi-backed LIV Golf’s purchase of the PGA Tour, two Democrats said in a June 16 letter to Treasury Secretary Yellen. Sen. Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, and Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said that if CFIUS has jurisdiction over the deal, the committee should “resolve any national security risks related to the transaction.”
A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate this week could lead to new sanctions against “foreign persons” committing human rights violations against “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals.” The bill was introduced June 13 by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and so far has seven co-sponsors. The text wasn’t yet available at deadline.