Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young, who co-led the Endless Frontier bill with Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, said he hopes to learn more soon about when conferees might be named to negotiate a compromise between the House and the Senate approaches to a China package. "I'm supposed to huddle up with Sen. Schumer today. I need to approach him. I have not had an opportunity to personally chat with him about the state of things," Young said in a brief hallway interview Nov. 30.
The House Science Committee has been ready to go to conference on science and tech legislation since passing its bills in June, but members are waiting for Democratic leadership to take action on the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S. 1260), the committee ranking member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said in a recent interview.
The Congressional Research Service published a report dated Nov. 10 on the supply chain issues at U.S. ports, detailing disruptions to customs processes, container flows and more. It also describes the range of port inefficiencies being faced by traders and forwarders, including equipment and driver shortages, container fees, and “inadequate” Department of Transportation data collection efforts on detention time that could have been used "for considering policy changes."
Nine liberal senators, led by Democrats Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, want the U.S. to push Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Union to agree to an Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver at the World Trade Organization, so that COVID-19 vaccine production can accelerate in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The Trade Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a virtual hearing Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. EST called “Supporting U.S. Workers, Businesses, and the Environment in the Face of Unfair Chinese Trade Practices." No witnesses have been announced.
A Senate bill would authorize several recommendations recently made by the Federal Maritime Commission to address issues in the international freight delivery system, including unfair detention and demurrage fees. The bill, introduced last week, would also seek to standardize shipping terminology among port users and require the government to produce more statistics on equipment dwell times.
The Senate Finance Committee approved the nominations of Chris Wilson for chief innovation and intellectual property negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on a 24-4 vote, and María Pagán to be a deputy USTR, who would lead the delegation to the World Trade Organization, 27-1. Both are longtime civil servants at USTR (see 2108110038).
The Bureau of Industry and Security hasn’t done enough to restrict exports of sensitive technologies to Chinese artificial intelligence companies, Republican senators said in a Nov. 15 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The senators urged BIS to “expeditiously review and then add” to the Entity List all A.I. suppliers to China’s military, including those listed in a recent report by Georgetown University. In a report last month, university researchers said very few A.I. suppliers to China face specific U.S. export controls (see 2110290018).
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., introduced a resolution late last week to block the Biden administration's first major arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The joint resolution of disapproval would prohibit the sale of $650 million worth of advanced medium range air-to-air missiles and other equipment announced by the Defense Department earlier this month (see 2111050007). Omar said it would be “unconscionable” to sell weapons to the Saudi government. “We should never be selling human rights abusers weapons, but we certainly should not be doing so in the midst of a humanitarian crisis they are responsible for,” she said Nov. 12. “Congress has the authority to stop these sales, and we must exercise that power.”
Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., along with 22 Democrats and Republicans from Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, California, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to press Indian government officials to lower their 36% tariffs on American pecans when she meets with them this week. "As you may know, American pecan producers have faced many challenges due to rising imports from Mexico, Chinese tariffs, natural disasters like Hurricane Michael, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Gaining access to new markets for pecans will help ease the pain while orchards are replanted and as we push China for full implementation of its obligations under the U.S.-China Economic and Trade Agreement," they wrote. They said that pecan production contributes $3.57 billion to the "economies of the 15 pecan producing states in the United States."