Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters July 16 that he's no longer making predictions about how or when the China-U.S. trade conflict might get resolved. In April, before the breakdown in talks, Grassley was cheering the progress the administration was making (see 1904100052). He said he had been expecting something to be signed in late May, and when the talks fell apart, "I thought we were at the 10-yard line getting an agreement." So now, he said, "I'm going to be very careful" about reacting to news about how things are going between negotiators. He said he heard the rumors that hawks in China are ascendant, and that an addition to the Chinese negotiating team bodes ill for an agreement, but then also saw commentators saying such pessimism is overblown. "I’m just going to take it a day at a time," he said.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who's also running for president, has asked an ethics official in the Commerce Department to examine whether the head of the International Trade Administration and the acting undersecretary for Industry and Security have ethical conflicts in the steel and aluminum Section 232 exclusion process. Both ITA and the Bureau of Industry and Security are responsible for evaluating the exclusion requests, and BIS officials ultimately grant or reject the requests.

The House on July 15 passed a bill that would order the president to impose sanctions on corrupt government officials in the Northern Triangle countries, according to a press release from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The bill, titled the "United States-Northern Triangle Enhanced Engagement Act," would sanction officials involved in bribery, extortion and money laundering through asset freezes and U.S. travel bans. Violators of the sanctions would be subject to penalties in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a member of the House working group negotiating with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, said the second meeting, held the morning of July 11, was interesting, like the first. Schakowsky, D-Ill., whose area of interest in the group is the provision for biologic drug makers, said that topic was covered at the first meeting, before the Fourth of July break.

The House passed on voice votes July 11 three amendments aimed at addressing concerns about Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE for inclusion in the chamber's version of the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2500). One, led by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., would impose conditions for the Department of Commerce to be able to lift the Bureau of Industry and Security's addition of Huawei to its Entity List that would impose export restrictions on the company, including a finding that Huawei and its executives haven't violated U.S. or United Nations sanctions and haven't engaged in theft of U.S. intellectual property during the preceding five years. Acting Commerce Undersecretary for Industry and Security Nazak Nikakhtar said on July 9 the department is reviewing export license applications to sell to Huawei in order to “mitigate as much of the negative impacts of the entity listing as possible” and hopes to have decisions “soon” (see 1907090068).

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said that although under fast track authority the administration could send the implementing bill for the NAFTA rewrite on July 9, the administration will not be doing that. "There's respect for this legislative process and the importance of Pelosi involved this process... the White House is not going to do anything without consulting with her," he said. He referred to White House Chief Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow's comments earlier that morning about the administration's plans.

Leaders of the generally pro-trade New Democrat Coalition warned the U.S. trade representative not to send an implementing bill for the new NAFTA to Congress on July 9. Rep. Derek Kilmer, chairman of the New Dems, and Rep. Gregory Meeks, co-chairman of the group's trade task force, spoke to reporters July 8 about why they sent a letter that day to USTR warning him off.

A bipartisan effort to reduce fentanyl trafficking passed the Senate June 27 on the must-pass defense authorization bill. The amendment would dedicate some money for investigations into which Chinese companies are supplying fentanyl to the U.S. black market. It also requires sanctions on drug manufacturers in China that knowingly provide synthetic opioids to dealers, and would sanction financial institutions that assist those manufacturers or international drug cartels. However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's staff could not say by press time how much money would be appropriated.

Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., plans to introduce a bill that would increase export controls on additional goods deemed by China to be “core technologies,” and impose sanctions on foreign entities or people who violate those controls, according to a "dear colleague" letter Green sent June 26 to solicit co-sponsors. The bill, which he calls the China Technology Transfer Control Act, would “stop the Chinese military’s acquisition of sensitive American technology,” the letter said. “We should not continue to let China steal American property, only for them to turn around and use it to undermine our national security.”

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations advanced a bill on June 25 that would repeal the ban on all exports to Cyprus that fall on the U.S. Munitions List. The change would prohibit the State Department from denying exports, re-exports or transfers of defense items and services to Cyprus as long as Cyprus is the end-user, the bill states. The repeal would advance U.S. “security interests” in Europe by helping Cyprus reduce its dependence on “other countries” for defense products, including countries that “pose challenges” to the U.S., the bill said. The change comes as part of a larger bill that would require the State Department to submit reports to Congress on Russian interference in Cyprus, Greece and Israel. The bill would also call on the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Turkey and Russia if Turkey carries out its plan to buy an S-400 air defense system from Russia.