The Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces (Inform) Consumers Act passed the House Nov. 17, making it more likely the bill could become law during the lame duck session. The Inform Consumers Act requires high-volume third-party sellers on e-commerce platforms to disclose their names and a way to contact them. A high-volume seller is defined as someone who has made 200 or more sales in a 12-month period, worth $5,000 or more. It also requires companies like Amazon or e-Bay to create a hotline to allow customers to report postings they believe to be stolen or counterfeit goods.
With the expected shift to a Republican majority in the House -- and the retirement from Congress of former Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady -- Republicans will have three choices to lead the powerful committee.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., whose party is all but certain to lose the majority in January, is still firm that what's holding up the renewal of two small tariff-cutting bills is Republican refusal to renew Trade Adjustment Assistance. The program, which offers retraining and extended unemployment for workers whose jobs were eliminated due to foreign competition, can no longer accept new applicants since it expired in July.
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Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told reporters there is bipartisan support for renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, but he elided the primary issue that has held up the two programs all year -- House Democrats' insistence Trade Adjustment Assistance be renewed at the same time. House Republicans oppose renewing TAA, saying there is no tariff-lowering agenda for U.S. exports at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (see 2209200068). Wyden spoke on a phone call Nov. 15.
FDA on Nov. 15 released its final rule setting new record-keeping requirements for foods it deems high-risk. Set for publication in the Nov. 21 Federal Register, the “traceability” rule requires entities at key points in the supply chain to keep records of certain high-risk foods as they move through the supply chain, and also to provide more general records of their traceability record-keeping program.
Of all the outstanding trade policy options -- new trade promotion authority, requiring Section 301 exclusions, revisions to antidumping law and a customs modernization law -- the head of government relations at Flexport said he thinks customs modernization is the most likely to pass. "I think we are coming on the cusp of something," Darien Flowers said, and said he thinks a bill will be enacted before 2025. Flowers once worked for Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who is leading the bill, though more recently he served on the minority staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.
A recent report by Reuters, which detailed how CBP detained 1,053 shipments related to solar panels over four months ended Oct. 25, drew an angry response from China and a warning from a customs lawyer whose firm is helping companies deal with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which took effect June 21 (see 2206210022).
NEW YORK -- At the U.S. Fashion Industry Association trade conference, the group's Washington counsel said that he believes there's a high likelihood that the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill will be passed before Congress goes home in December. USFIA President Julia Hughes added that because some of the members who are retiring are pro-trade, and they recognize that sentiment is waning in Congress, "that's gonna be an impetus to do something during the lame duck. Whether they're successful or not, that's not clear yet."
Russia will no longer be considered a market economy in antidumping duty investigations, which will likely cause future AD rates to rise for some Russian companies and rates to be set higher in AD duty orders issued for the country going forward.