U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Sen Pat Roberts, R-Kan., that the U.S and Europe are at an impasse on trade talks, because the EU is not willing to talk about its barriers to U.S. agriculture exports.

The House passed a bill July 25 that urges the president to “prioritize” a new framework to improve export licensing. The provision, part of the Department of State Authorization Act of 2019, said the administration should “streamline licensing” by revising “Special Comprehensive Export Authorizations” for exports to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, any of the organization's member countries, Sweden and any other country described in the Arms Export Control Act. The bill also makes several technical changes to the AECA, including an amendment that changes the purposes for which U.S. military sales are authorized from an “internal security justification” to a “legitimate internal security (including for anti-terrorism purposes).”

A Democrat from Texas and one from the San Diego area led a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging a vote on the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement, as the new NAFTA is called, before the end of 2019. Rep. Colin Allred, who defeated a Republican incumbent in the Dallas suburbs, and Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., sent the letter July 26.

House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who led a trip to Mexico with nine other House members last week, said that everyone came away impressed with Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Blumenauer said that in his opinion, the entire Mexican Cabinet is clearly committed to changing labor laws in Mexico so that its workers can be better paid. "Lots of money was made [from NAFTA], but workers in the United States, workers in Mexico, are no better off in inflation-adjusted terms," he said.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill on July 25 that would sanction people who are blocking access to Yemeni ports, supporting the Houthi movement in Yemen or were involved in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the committee said in a July 25 press release. The bill specifically mentions those “hindering the efforts” of the United Nations and other organizations trying to provide humanitarian relief in Yemen and would sanction companies that sell defense-related items or services to the Houthi movement in Yemen. The bill, titled the Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act of 2019, asks the president to sanction those involved in the Yemen conflict under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanction those involved in the Khashoggi murder, including “any official of the government of Saudi Arabia,” under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.

Of the 10 Congress members who traveled to Mexico last weekend to evaluate the NAFTA rewrite as part of a congressional delegation, one was already planning to vote for the deal, others were leaning yes, and some others have always opposed free trade deals. For some of those who were leaning yes, their conversations with government officials and institutions that tackle environmental problems near the border moved them closer to voting yes. For others who were already skeptical, they returned even more skeptical.

A Senate bill would authorize sanctions on foreign persons, including government officials, responsible for illegally trading tobacco products. The bill, introduced June 25 and titled the “Combating the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products Act,” would freeze assets and block funds of sanctioned people under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The bill would also impose travel bans. The bill states that the "illicit trade in tobacco products or their precursors is a multibillion dollar business that fuels organized crime, fosters public corruption, undermines public health goals, and finances terrorist groups that threaten global security and stability."

The House of Representatives passed three Senate resolutions that would block the export of Raytheon laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These munitions are used in those countries' interventions in the Yemen civil war, which many members of Congress disapprove of. All Democrats, four Republicans and former Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan supported the resolutions, and a handful of members from both parties didn't vote the evening of July 17. The 238 or 237 votes in favor of the resolutions are not enough to override an expected veto; the resolutions passed the Senate 53-45, also not strongly enough to override a veto. There are 19 other resolutions the Senate passed on arms sales to these countries that have not yet been voted on in the House.

Two members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to impose more sanctions on Nicaragua officials, saying the current sanctions regime, including designations announced June 21, need to be expanded. In a July 11 letter, Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Pompeo should “work with Congress on additional efforts to hold Nicaraguan officials accountable.” The letter cited Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s “human rights abuses” and keeping of political prisoners.

Rep. Ron Kind, a pro-trade Democrat from a rural district in Wisconsin, is questioning the Trump administration's claims that large-scale purchases of commodities would follow the meeting of the Chinese and U.S. presidents at the G-20 Summit in Japan. He sent a letter to Larry Kudlow, the president's chief economic adviser, and to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on July 17 making this point. "On July 15, Mr. Kudlow stated that the Administration expects that China will soon be announcing 'some large scale purchases' but offered no further details. Farmers in Wisconsin and around the country are under intense pressure to stay above water, and any notifications of additional agricultural purchases should be clearly communicated to the Congress and the public."