Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says he has not been able to see the written counterproposal on the NAFTA rewrite from the USTR to the House Democrat working group, but said that ending the ability to block panels in state-to-state dispute is under discussion. Grassley said his staff has had an overview of the administration's proposals to refine the new NAFTA, known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, "and we look at it as something we can live with." He said he doesn't know how Democrats have received the counterproposal. "I think that’s more important than my reaction to it," he said.

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., is seeking more colleagues to join a letter asking the administration to move Switzerland to the front of the line for trade negotiations. Four other Democrats and two Republicans, including fellow Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, are on board. Beyer noted that Switzerland is the country's ninth-largest trading partner. "A Swiss FTA presents an opportunity to negotiate a benchmark-setting agreement with a committed and open partner known for its high standards for labor and environmental protection," he said. Beyer was previously the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a leading NAFTA critic and member of the Democrat working group negotiating for changes to the NAFTA rewrite, told a radio host in Connecticut that the working group has not yet closed the gap between the Trump administration and House Democrats on any one of the four areas where they are seeking changes. Those areas are labor standards, the environment, enforcement and the biologics exclusivity period.

Four House Democrats and two Republicans whose states border Canada have introduced a companion bill to a Senate proposal (see 1909100015) to require minimum staffing of CBP officers at the Canadian border. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., introduced the bill, H.R. 4276, Sept. 10, and was joined by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn, and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged the Trump administration to make Huawei a focal point of negotiations with China and to reject requests from China to discuss Huawei in another setting. “I have a concise and pointed request to the White House this morning: tell China 'forget about it,'” Schumer said, speaking on the Senate floor Sept. 12. “Don’t let China exclude our nation’s security and Huawei from the negotiations.”

China criticized a bill passed by the U.S. Senate that urges the Trump administration to sanction Chinese officials responsible for the oppression of the country’s Uyghur population.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer sent a written counter-proposal to the House working group the afternoon of Sept. 11, a House Ways & Means spokeswoman said. She declined to say how long and extensive it was.

The trade staff of the House Ways and Means Committee told Democrats who are anxious for a ratification vote on the new NAFTA that the rewrite "will be ready for a vote as soon as it is ready; no sooner, and also no later," in a memo that was structured as an imagined dialogue between a member who wants a vote and the committee chairman, who has a big say on when that vote happens.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whose state borders Canada, introduced a bill Sept. 9 that would establish minimum staffing of CBP officers along the Canadian border. He was joined on S. 2444 by the other New York senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Vermont's Patrick Leahy and New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen.

The Congressional Research Service issued a report on U.S.-Iran tensions and their impacts on U.S. policy, including scenarios wherein U.S. sanctions are strengthened. The report, released Aug 30, also includes a timeline of statements issued by Iranian and U.S. officials on sanctions, an explanation for the European Union’s “hesitancy to back the U.S. maximum pressure campaign” on Iran, and a series of consequences for the U.S. pulling out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.