Congress

With U.S. lobster exports to China down more than 80 percent since June 2018, Massachusetts lawmakers including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) are growing increasingly concerned about their state's industry, and asking for help in finding new markets.

President Trump plans to use a mechanism allowed under a 2015 trade law to enter into a deal on “tariff barriers” with Japan, he told Congress on Monday, adding that the two sides would also sign an “executive agreement” on digital trade.

Donohue said his prediction was “not just based on some thought I came up with in the middle of the night.”

The bill would extend the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act until 2030.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement counterproposal to House Democrats is being kept under wraps due to national security, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) told Inside U.S. Trade on Thursday.

“Tell China to forget about it. Don’t let China exclude our nation’s security and Huawei from the negotiations.”

House Ways & Means Committee trade panel leaders are circulating a letter urging the Trump administration not to lower the U.S. de minimis threshold as part of a renegotiated NAFTA, contending that doing so would override congressional authority.

Negotiations on bilateral trade deals, including with Japan, will remain in a “holding pattern” until the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement is ratified, Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) said this week.