House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., who leads the working group that aims to win changes to the NAFTA rewrite to make it more palatable to Democrats, said that "it's time to pick up the intensity of the negotiations" with the administration. "I would prefer now that the pace pick up," he said in an interview on Sept. 19, the day before the working group was to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer for the first time since they received a counterproposal from him.

Legislative discussions continue for how to shape legislation in order to regain control of trade policy from the Trump administration as the legislative branch is further pushed to the sidelines, a former senior U.S. trade negotiator said. Barbara Weisel, former assistant U.S. trade representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said Congress is beginning to question how it can retake its constitutionally granted powers over trade, which have been overtaken by the Trump administration and its preference for bilateral negotiations. “One has to believe there are many members of Congress now who are debating and quietly discussing how they are going to adjust this issue,” Weisel said during a Sept. 17 event at the Brookings Institution in Washington, focused on the "America First" trade policy with regard to Japan and Taiwan. “And I think it’s about time.”

The Treasury Department released its proposed regulations for the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018, granting expanded authorities to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, Treasury said in a Sept. 17 press release.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 9-13 in case they were missed.

A recently reached U.S.-Japan free trade deal makes up 90 percent of the losses farmers experienced because the U.S. dropped out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, during a Sept. 17 call with reporters. "I haven’t seen anything on paper, but according to [the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative], it puts us on this level playing field with our trading partners," he said.

The International Chamber of Commerce is urging the World Trade Organization to permanently ban tariffs on “cross-border data flows” as a temporary ban moves closer to expiration, the ICC said in a Sept. 17 report.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue said he doesn't believe that the Trump administration will declare victory if Chinese buyers return to buying pork, soybeans and corn. "I don't think it will be an agreement of any type until it's a matter of substance," he said.

The European Union Council on Sept. 16 updated and strengthened its export controls on arms sales and issued an updated guidance on the changes. The updates include a new “searchable online database” of member states’ arms export data, a renewed commitment to “promote the universalisation and effective implementation” of the Arms Trade Treaty and a push for “a broader range of information-sharing” on export controls.

The Federal Maritime Commission will look at multiple factors, including cargo accessibility and the transparency of involved terminology, when it considers whether detention or demurrage practices are reasonable, the agency said in a notice it posted ahead of publication in the Federal Register. The proposed interpretive rule is meant to help address issues with detention and demurrage charges and follows a multiyear effort on that front (see 1606130005). Comments are due Oct. 17, the FMC said in a news release.

A top Treasury Department official criticized Britain's decision to release an Iranian oil tanker and defended the U.S.’s maximum pressure sanctions campaign against Iran, saying the U.S. will not ease Iran sanctions ahead of a potential meeting between the two countries. Gibraltar's decision to release the Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, was an “expensive mistake,” said Marshall Billingslea, Treasury’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing. Gibraltar seized the ship in July after suspecting it of transporting oil to Syria, but later released the tanker after Iran promised it would not ship oil to Syria, which would violate international sanctions. Despite the promises, the ship delivered oil to Syria (see 1909110042).