A measure that would impose sanctions on people or companies involved in Russian gold trade could pass as part of a package with the Senate's fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. The measure, included as an amendment, would sanction people that “knowingly participated in a significant transaction” involving the “sale, supply, or transfer” of gold to or from Russia and the Russian government or transactions that “otherwise involved gold in which the Government of the Russian Federation had any interest.” The entire package of 75 amendments will be decided with one vote.
A new bill in the Senate and House could impose one-year bans on the export of certain weapons and defense items to Saudi Arabia. The bill, announced this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., would suspend all new license applications for exports of “any defense articles proposed or submitted to Congress” pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act, including “direct munitions containers; weapon support and support equipment; spare and repair parts; United States Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistical support services; and other related elements of logistical and program support.”
The U.S. shouldn’t ease oil sanctions and other trade restrictions against Venezuela, which would only benefit a “criminal network known for pretending to negotiate while extorting for sanctions relief,” Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said last week. The two lawmakers said they are “deeply troubled” by reports that the Biden administration is considering lifting some sanctions to convince the Nicolas Maduro regime to allow free and fair presidential elections in 2024 (see 2210060014).
Big Tech’s digital trade agenda “threatens” consumer privacy, worker safety and anti-disinformation efforts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., wrote to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Oct. 6. They requested information about a “revolving door” of high-level hiring between the Commerce Department and Big Tech and the potential impact on global digital trade negotiations. They said the unethical practice of hiring high-level staff from tech and allowing them to influence trade deals behind closed doors hurts workers and consumers. They cited potential impacts on negotiations for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and 36 other House Republicans are calling on the administration to include Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, to expeditiously finalize provisions in the U.S.-Taiwan Trade and Investment Framework, and to negotiate a free trade agreement with Taiwan as soon as possible. The bill, introduced Sept. 28, is called the Taiwan Policy Act. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas said, "Deterrence is key to stopping the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] from provoking a conflict that would seriously harm U.S. national security.”
The White House should hold off on issuing a “unilateral” executive order on outbound investment screening (see 2209290043 and 2209140041) and should instead work with Congress to address sensitive investment flows to China, said Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee. In an Oct. 3 letter to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, McHenry said he is “concerned that the Administration may choose to resort to unilateral measures,” including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, rather than “work with Congress to address the threat posed by China.”
Nova Daly, a Wiley senior public policy adviser, said businesses in sensitive sectors should prepare for outbound investment review, because even if Congress does not legislate on the topic, the House speaker and Senate majority leader asked the White House to issue an executive order creating such a review.
The Senate Agriculture Committee this week advanced the nomination of Alexis Taylor, President Joe Biden's nominee to be USDA’s undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, to the full Senate (see 2205160011). During her nomination hearing, Taylor said she expects U.S. agricultural traders to have “huge opportunities” in the Indo-Pacific. She said they should prepare for expanded market access (see 2209230028).
The Commerce Department should do more to restrict exports of assault rifles, which have increased since their export licensing oversight was transferred from the State Department in 2020, four Democratic lawmakers said in a Sept. 28 letter to Secretary Gina Raimondo. The lawmakers asked Commerce to outline its processes for preventing weapons from being exported to human rights abusers, explain its end-user verification process, and provide statistics on its export license approvals and denials for assault weapons.
Two lawmakers are asking President Joe Biden to determine whether Russia’s imprisonment of opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza constitutes a human rights violation and should be met with sanctions. In a letter to Biden last week, Sens. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said Kara-Murza’s “history of defending and promoting human rights” and his opposition to the war in Ukraine may have led to assassination attempts against him in 2015 and 2017 and to his “current wrongful imprisonment.”