Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., say an overvalued dollar and other countries' efforts to devalue their currencies created the trade deficit that meant "90,000 factories have closed down, thousands of family farms have gone bankrupt, and millions of manufacturing workers have lost their jobs." The Midwestern senators have introduced a bill, called the Competitive Dollar for Jobs and Prosperity Act, that aims to fix that. They announced the bill -- along with support from Trump allies like the Coalition for a Prosperous America -- on July 31.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill on July 31 that would sanction anyone involved with Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The bill authorizes the Trump administration to impose a series of sanctions on those involved, including restricted use of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, restricted export licenses, asset freezes and more. The administration cannot use the measures to ban a sanctioned person from importing goods into the U.S., the bill said. If Congress passes the bill, the State Department would be required to submit an annual report to Congress on all entities involved in the pipeline project.

The Senate on July 29 failed to override President Donald Trump’s vetoes of three separate resolutions blocking the U.S.’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia and with the United Arab Emirates. The effort failed in each of the votes -- 45-40, 45-39 and 46-41 -- which needed a two-thirds majority to pass. The sales, announced in May by the State Department, used the Arms Export Control Act’s emergency provision to bypass congressional approval and move forward with 22 arms transfers worth about $8 billion to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

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."