Excerpt: The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) and USA*Engage Monday released their 111th Congressional Report Card, scoring Capitol Hill lawmakers based on their votes on key international trade and tax policy issues in 2009 and 2010. Unlike previous years, all members of the 111th Congress received an “incomplete” on the report card versus letter grades, due to their “collective lack of positive action” on trade and tax issues crucial to U.S. economic growth and job creation. “With just five votes to analyze in the House and even fewer in the Senate — only two — it is difficult to assess members on their records,” said NFTC President and USA*Engage Co-Chair Bill Reinsch, in a statement. “At a time when the U.S. is continuing to experience record unemployment, and the economy, though rebounding, is doing so at a slow pace, it is hard to grapple with the reality that this Congress has not successfully passed trade-related legislation that would help to boost U.S. economic growth, increase exports and create jobs,” Reinsch said.http://www.americanshipper.com/NewWeb/FC/FLC_story.asp?news=173033

Excerpt: The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee lambasted its top Republican Thursday for not fully supporting a Chinese currency measure, saying he’s ignoring the concerns of American manufacturers. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) called out Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), who’s expressed concerns about the Chinese evaluation measure passed last week by the House that would allow the Commerce Department to impose tariffs on China if it doesn’t strengthen its yuan. A stronger yuan would decrease the gap between prices for Chinese and American goods and make American products more attractive. The House approved the measure, 348-79, with dozens of rank-and-file Republicans supporting it because it’s popular back home in manufacturing districts. Camp voted for the legislation. But later the same day, in comments before the National Foreign Trade Council, he said the measure was not enough to maintain the country’s competitiveness and was not on his trade agenda.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43279.html

Excerpt: A number of business associations are planning a lobbying blitz during the lame-duck session to repeal the U.S. travel ban to Cuba… Goule’s group and others, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) and the National Pork Producers Council, plan to lobby lawmakers to take up the bill again during the lame-duck session. “A vote by the committee that has jurisdiction over the travel provision of the bill would send a strong signal,” said Jake Colvin, a vice president at NFTC. “We have always thought the committee vote would be tougher than the floor vote. If you can get it out of committee, you can win on the floor.”
 
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/122835-business-groups-want-cuba-vote-in-the-lame-duck   

Excerpt: Farm groups’ efforts to convince Congress to end the ban on American travel to Cuba and permanently ease regulations on the financing of sales of U.S. agricultural products to Cuba were stalled September 28 when House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, D-Calif., postponed much-anticipated committee action on the on the bill until after the election… Jake Colvin of the National Foreign Trade Council, which had organized business and agriculture groups in favor of the bill, said in an interview, “We were convinced the votes were finally there.” But Colvin also noted that Berman would have needed every vote and that if any committee member had been absent, the bill might have failed.

http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/17238/

Excerpt: Currency legislation likely to be approved by the House today (Sept. 29) will actually make it less likely that China speedily revalues the renminbi (RMB) and could result in Chinese government actions that make it harder for U.S. companies to export to China or expand their operations there, according to a delegation of trade associations representing companies operating in China. The United States instead should pursue policies that can help U.S. exports compete more effectively with German, Japanese, South Korean and Canadian products for sale in China, said the leaders of the American Chambers of Commerce in Shanghai and Beijing (see separate story). In a Sept. 27 lunch with reporters, delegation members warned that passage of H.R. 2378, the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act, as approved by the Ways and Means Committee last week, may make Chinese-based companies less likely to source from the United States because of uncertainty over possible Chinese retaliatory measures… But William Reinsch, the president of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), which sponsored lunch for the visiting delegation, said he would expect “some sort of reaction” from China against the Levin bill “whether there’s merit or not.” In contrast with Japan’s muted responses to currency-related pressure by the U.S. in the 1980s, China today has been “much more up front” about engaging in “tit for tat” retaliation against perceived U.S. trade slights, he said. This more aggressive reaction does not mean the U.S. should not act if it believes it is necessary, he said. But it does mean that the U.S. government should anticipate that China may react and should “take that into account in our planning and our timing, so that we are at least prepared when those things come along.”

Excerpt: The Obama administration and the U.S. Congress should promote a more strategic U.S. trade policy toward China that would take aim at improving the competitiveness of U.S. exports vis-a-vis third-country competitors in the Chinese market while simultaneously tackling Chinese market-access barriers, intellectual property violations and discriminatory industrial policies, a delegation of China-based U.S. trade associations told members of Congress this week. Such policies would include fully funding the Obama administration’s National Export Initiative (NEI), getting President Obama to lead a trade mission to China, and devoting more personnel and resources to bolstering the China offices of U.S. economic agencies, according to representatives from the American Chambers of Commerce in Shanghai and Beijing. The delegation featured representatives from the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, the Beijing-based American Chamber of Commerce-People’s Republic of China (AmCham-China), and the American Chamber of Commerce in Southwest China. They highlighted the messages they delivered to lawmakers and U.S. officials while visiting Washington, DC this week during a Sept. 27 lunch with reporters hosted by the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) (see separate story).

Excerpt: The House of Representatives is to vote Wednesday on legislation that aims to help U.S. firms that claim harm from China’s low currency exchange rate, which benefits Chinese exports and hurts its competitors, including America. The legislation enjoys rare bipartisan support, as lawmakers in both parties appeal to voter anger about the sour economy by blaming China. Should Congress and the administration agree to take punitive action against China over its currency policy, a trade war probably would follow, as both the U.S. and China have their own domestic politics to navigate. “It’s like the two need a marriage counselor,” said Timothy P. Stratford, a former U.S. trade negotiator with China, now in Beijing with the law firm Covington & Burling LLP… While the rhetoric could grow louder, both sides are unlikely to let relations deteriorate into a trade war, Stratford said. “I don’t think we’re going to go to a worst-case scenario,” Stratford told reporters at a National Foreign Trade Council luncheon in Washington on Monday, adding that “the word ‘war’ is the right word, because you’re trying to inflict damage until the other cries uncle.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/27/1845518/house-bill-to-punish-china-over.html