USTR Nominee Expected to Face Lots of Section 301 Questions at Hearing

Katharine Tai, President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, enjoys broad bipartisan support in Congress through her work as a USMCA negotiator when she was House Ways and Means Committee chief trade counsel, Nicole Bivens Collinson, Sandler Travis president-international trade and government relations, told a Sports & Fitness Industry Association webinar Feb. 23. Tai’s Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing is set for 10 a.m. Feb. 25, and she’s going to be asked a lot of questions about the Biden administration’s posture toward the Section 301 tariffs on China, Collinson said. If all goes as well as expected with her confirmation process, Tai could be sworn in as USTR as soon as March 8, she said.

The new administration has shown it’s “not moving anytime soon to remove those tariffs,” she said. It’s possible USTR Tai will “restart” the tariff exclusion process. Most of the remaining exemptions expired Dec. 31, except for COVID-19-related exclusions, and those are scheduled to lapse next month. “We know there’s a strong push” in Congress and in the business community to reinstate the exclusions and extend previously expired exemptions, she said. If the administration decides to do neither, “they could wait to see what happens” with the massive Section 301 litigation at the U.S. Court of International Trade, she said. “It’s very possible” the court’s three-judge panel could render an opinion by September or October, she said. “They could come out and say these tariffs did exceed the statutory authority and therefore they are illegal.”

There’s speculation the administration won’t appeal the opinion to the Supreme Court if the plaintiffs prevail, she said. Though Collinson is not a lawyer, Sandler Travis has several attorneys representing importer plaintiffs in various Section 301 cases. The White House didn’t comment.