Customs Issues Not Seen as Pressing for Trump Administration, Though Much Still Unclear, NCBFAA Lobbyist Says
President-elect Donald Trump's transition team trade-related actions so far give a mixed message for how the incoming administration will conduct trade policy, Jon Kent, legislative representative for the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, said during a Jan. 17 webinar. “Everybody is wondering where things are going, what will happen, and that question is being shared by the Washington so-called ‘insider community,’ that is hearing a great number of mixed messages, different signals, and none of them creating a streamlined pattern for people to follow so that they can speak with any assurance as to what will happen,” he said. Customs policy development will likely be addressed “at a later time” after the Senate confirms top administration personnel into their positions, Kent said.
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As opposed to a more traditional free trade ideology, the incoming Trump administration will view trade through the lens of “what works best for America, and then how does the rest of the world fit into that?” Kent said. This new way of viewing trade “does, indeed, upend the free trade versus protectionist battle lines,” he said. “I don’t know that anyone can fall on either side with certainty. I know that we, within our community, like to see as much trade as possible, and perhaps, in the end, we will see a great deal of trade. But we don’t know yet. We don’t know the rules of the game.”
It also remains to be seen whether creation of the National Trade Council (NTC), which Trump named trade professor Peter Navarro to lead (see 1612210054), will facilitate administration consensus on trade issues or bring tensions by adding too many voices to the policy discussion, Kent said. But the new structure brought through NTC’s formation could help Trump manage according to his preferred style of arriving at a decision based off proposals produced during spirited debates, Kent said. Incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon will likely have a “firm hand” on the direction of Trump’s trade policy and heavily influence NTC decisions, Kent said. The new organ will likely push the National Economic Council toward the periphery of trade policy decision-making, he said.
The legislative branch is likely to act more independently of the Trump administration than previous one-party Congresses did under the leadership of a same-party president, Kent said. For example, House Republicans are likely to be assertive in pushing the border adjustability elements of their tax reform proposal in response to Trump's criticisms on border adjustments in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (here). House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, defended the border adjustability components of the tax framework proposal. "Unfortunately our current tax code is not only complex, it favors Chinese steel over American steel, Mexican beef and autos over American beef and autos, and foreign oil over American oil,” Brady said in an emailed statement. “It's time to tax imports and exports equally in America, and end the 'Made in America' export tax."
Meanwhile, House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal, D-Mass., is skeptical of border adjustability, Kent said. Neal works more behind the scenes as a dealmaker on legislation, but has appointed some “real hard-liners” to fill the Democratic side of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee (see 1701120009), Kent said. For example, the new subcommittee Ranking Member Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., is very pro-labor and “very strong in his desire for barriers” and for a tougher stance on admissibility of imports, Kent said.