House Ways and Means Committee Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., and Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., introduced the Undertaking Negotiations on Investment and Trade for Economic Dynamism (United) Act, a bill that directs the administration to begin negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement within 180 days of passage.
The State Department needs to answer for media reports that it “held back” human rights sanctions and export controls on China following the U.S. discovery of a Chinese reconnaissance balloon in American airspace earlier this year (see 2302100072), said Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas. McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, cited a recent Reuters report that said the State Department was trying to “limit damage to the U.S.-China relationship” and pushed back on new trade restrictions.
Republicans leaders this week criticized China's decision to ban certain sales from U.S. chip company Micron (see 2305220053), saying the move was politically driven and lacked evidence.
A bill introduced by Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., called the Stop Chinese Fentanyl Act, would authorize the administration to impose sanctions on Chinese chemical companies and government officials who don't do appropriate compliance and oversight to prevent their chemicals from being sold to narcotraffickers.
The Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act, a follow-up bill to OSRA from original co-sponsors Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., and Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., passed 58-1 out of the House Transportation Committee May 23.
Members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate introduced the Safeguarding American Value-Added Exports (SAVE) Act, which will amend the Agriculture Trade Act of 1978 to "include and define a list of common names for ag commodities, food products, and terms used in marketing and packaging of products," Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., announced in a press release last week. In addition, SAVE also will direct the secretary of agriculture and the U.S. trade representative to negotiate with "our foreign trading partners to defend the right to use common names for ag commodities in those same foreign markets," the press release said.
The leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific are trying to pass legislation to give the president the ability to respond to economic coercion of allies, but Chair Young Kim, R-Calif., asked witnesses at a subcommittee hearing she convened to advise what else could be done to stand up to China's economic aggression.
Republicans reintroduced a bill in the Senate this week that could require the administration to sanction and impose export restrictions on people or entities that provide support to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terrorist groups. The Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad International Terrorism Support Prevention Act, which also has previously been introduced in the House (see 2301260008), could lead to asset freezes, denial of arms exports, denial of dual-use exports, finance prohibitions and other restrictions on terrorist group supporters. “We must hold accountable the individuals who are aiding Hamas terrorists and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, one of several Republicans backing the bill.
A bipartisan bill reintroduced in the House this week could require new sanctions against members of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and could declare the CCP and President Xi Jinping have “committed numerous human rights violations, including genocide.” The lawmakers didn't immediately release the bill's text, but under a version of the Stop CCP Act introduced in the last Congress, the U.S. president would be required to sanction any former or current member of China’s National Communist Party Congress along with their adult family members.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee this week advanced a bill that could lead to new U.S. sanctions against people and entities involved in illegal fentanyl trade. The Project Precursor Act, introduced by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, would require the State Department to seek to classify illicit fentanyl under the Chemical Weapons Convention and authorize the U.S. to sanction banks, people and transnational criminal organizations “complicit in the trafficking of this chemical weapon,” McCaul said during a May 16 markup. “This is a generational crisis that requires bold action and thinking outside the box. That’s what we’re doing.”