The House Agriculture subcommittee that covers trade asked farmers to tell them how trade is affecting their businesses. They said they are not following President Donald Trump's advice to buy bigger tractors to fill the orders China has promised to make. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., chairman of the subcommittee, quoted Trump's comment about tractors in his opening statement, and said he's skeptical about the phase one deal with China, especially given that the coronavirus outbreak is going to affect China's market demand. He also said he'd heard about American poultry stuck in port because there was no one to move it due to quarantines.

Three House members introduced a bill March 5 that would grant Trade Adjustment Assistance to workers who lost their jobs at firms that had to cut back due to retaliatory tariffs on their exports. The bill was introduced by Reps. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Jim Cooper, D-Tenn. Traditionally, TAA has been for people who lost their jobs because the company moved their work out of the country, or because the company had to cut staff because it could not compete with imports. It provides extended unemployment insurance and pays for tuition for up to two years so workers can retrain for a different field. This bill is similar to a Democrat-introduced bill in July 2018 (see 1807180019) that did not get a vote in the House; Schneider, Sensenbrenner and Cooper also introduced a version of the bill in the summer of 2018.

A bill that calls on the administration to begin negotiations on a U.S.-Taiwan free trade agreement passed the House of Representatives unanimously March 4. While the bill -- the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act -- already passed the Senate, the Senate needs to vote again to send it to the president's desk because the bill language was not identical between the two chambers. “It is the sense of Congress that the United States should engage in bilateral trade negotiations with Taiwan, with the goal of entering into a free trade agreement that is of mutual economic benefit and that protects United States workers and benefits United States exporters,” the bill says.

Four House members are asking for support for a letter to urge Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to push the United Nations to renew its arms embargo against Iran. The embargo, which expires in October, is an “important means to restrain the sale of weapons” to Iran, Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., Michael McCaul, R-Texas, Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., said in the letter. The lawmakers also said that the expiration of the embargo may lead more states to trade weapons with Iran and may leave certain states feeling as though they do not have “sufficient legal authority to stop transfers once the U.N. embargo expires.”

The U.S.-Swiss joint mechanism intended to provide companies a path to exporting humanitarian goods to Iran may not convince risk-averse banks and businesses to export to the country, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in a Feb 28 letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Although the mechanism, which became operational Feb. 27 (see 2002270017), sets high due-diligence standards for users, the State Department expects more exporters to begin using it after announcing the first transaction through the system in January (see 2001300020).

A Congressional Research Service report on agricultural trade issues in the U.S. noted that even though ag exports to China dropped 53% from 2017 to 2018 due to retaliatory tariffs, overall ag exports only fell 2% in 2019, and some of that was due to lower commodity prices rather than lower volume. The report covered agricultural issues in the bilateral trade negotiations with Japan, Kenya, India, the European Union and United Kingdom, and noted that ag trade between the U.S. and the EU is less than 1% of all trade between the two regions, though the EU is the fifth-largest market for U.S. commodity and food exports. The top ag exports to the EU were corn, soybeans, tree nuts, distilled spirits and fish. Top imports from the EU were wine, distilled spirits, beer, bottled water and olive oil.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced a non-binding resolution Feb. 27 that asks the administration to begin free trade negotiations with Tunisia.

During a hearing that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said was designed to test President Donald Trump's claim that the phase one agreement with China is a “tremendous win for the American people,” most of what was revealed was that Democrats are skeptical of the purchase promises and likelihood of success of further negotiations, and Republicans admire Trump's confrontation of China.

The Trump administration should sanction Russia for interference in the 2020 presidential election, Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said in a Feb. 24 letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The three senators urged the administration to sanction anyone responsible for the interference or for providing “material or financial support” to those responsible. “It is long past time” for the administration to enact sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the letter said.

The House Ways and Means Committee has invited a union official, a commissioner from the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a former assistant U.S. trade representative, a major university president, and two farmers to testify on U.S-China trade competition. The hearing, which starts at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 26, will include testimony from Tim Stratford, the former assistant USTR; Thea Lee, the commissioner who is also president of the left-of-center think tank Economic Policy Institute; Rafael Reif, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Owen Herrnstadt, chief of staff for the Machinists union; Tim Dufault, a Minnesota farmer; and Richard Guebert Jr., president of the Illinois Farm Bureau.