Trade ministers meeting at the World Trade Organization in Geneva agreed to a partial solution to harmful subsidies for fishing fleets, an intellectual property waiver for Covid vaccines, and to allow sale of commodities to the World Food Program even if the product is otherwise subject to export restrictions. The countries that attended the ministerial conference also agreed to extend the moratorium on tariffs on electronic transmissions.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said that he wants to get the conference negotiations done for the China package, because the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) has "some important trade aspects."
The Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which would punish carriers who reject exports from West Coast ports if the Federal Maritime Commission deems those decisions as unreasonable, was signed into law June 16. The FMC is directed to begin a rulemaking on the matter. The law also puts the burden of proof on the reasonableness of demurrage and detention fees on ocean carriers, rather than the parties who were charged the fees.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told an audience at the American Association of Exporters and Importers conference June 15 that his discussion draft of a Customs modernization bill elicited some consternation, but that it was shared because he was trying to figure out "how do we get stakeholders in a good place so that we can have a customs modernization package?"
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has crafted a new proposal for an outbound investment screening mechanism that will ensure the U.S. is “not ceding its manufacturing power in industries critical to our economic and national security.” The “refined proposal,” negotiated during the congressional conference for the Bipartisan Innovation Act, will be “robust” but also will address industry concerns, said the lawmakers, including Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Bob Casey, D-Pa., who originally proposed a version of the bill last year (see 2201140038). “We look forward to meaningful engagement in writing from stakeholders as we work to secure this bill in the conference report,” the lawmakers said.
The June 13 passing of bill that aims to force shipping companies to accept U.S. exports on the return trip to Asia, and which further codifies Federal Maritime Commission's attempts to police detention and demurrage charges, was hailed by politicians as an inflation solution and greeted with caution by industry players.
A top official in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that opposition to extending a moratorium on tariffs on sales of intangible goods has surfaced before, but that the e-commerce moratorium has been renewed at every World Trade Organization ministerial conference since 1998. "There are a few countries, despite benefiting from e-commerce and digital trade, who continue to resist an extension of the moratorium," she said, but most countries, including in the developing world, see the tariff-free status as important.
A German think tank specialist in semiconductors' value chain vulnerabilities told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission he's concerned that the policy focus on bringing more production back to either the EU or the U.S. won't achieve its aims because policymakers aren't sure what those aims are.
President Joe Biden, speaking at the Port of Los Angeles, praised the collaborative work of port officials and workers and the government to break through logjams, and partly blamed foreign-owned shipping companies for rising prices.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is proposing a limited carbon tax on firms that are dirtier than average in about a dozen industries, and a carbon border tax on imports in those industries that are also above those benchmarks. The fee would start in 2024, for fossil fuel producers, refiners of petroleum products, petrochemicals manufacturers, fertilizer producers, hydrogen producers, adipic acid processors, cement producers, iron and steelmakers, aluminum producers, glass producers, pulp and paper plants, and ethanol producers. According to a press release from Whitehouse.