USTR trade barrier shake-up gets nod from progressives on gun imports

Increasing leniency from the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) about what constitutes a trade barrier has been ruffling the feathers of big business and is now getting a thumbs-up from progressives in Congress.

The latest example is the decision not to count foreign countries’ import license requirements on guns, ammunition and explosives as an impediment to trade in the USTR’s national trade estimate.

The move was praised by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Reps. Joquin Casto (D-Texas), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) in a letter sent Tuesday to Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

“This and other similar decisions break with USTR’s history of using trade policy to line the pockets of industry executives and undermine important protections for workers, consumers, and small business owners,” the lawmakers wrote.

The USTR’s annual trade estimate report, known as the NTE, was overhauled this year, giving less space to objections from U.S. multinationals and more to policy choices made by other governments.

“The NTE Report has received unprecedented attention this year because we are taking steps to return it to its stated statutory purpose,” Tai said in a statement released with the report in March.

U.S. businesses have been angered by the change, with the Chamber of Commerce arguing that USTR “risks giving a green light to foreign governments to raise barriers against U.S. exports or otherwise discriminate against U.S. companies.”

In their Tuesday letter to Tai, the Congressional Democrats said that the NTE overhaul was the right move and that the report had been diverted from its original purpose by including too many complaints from big businesses over the years.

“Under previous administrations, the NTE became a laundry list of industry complaints, including attacks on legitimate public policies that U.S. trading partners have pursued in order to protect workers, consumers, and small businesses,” they said.

The National Rifle Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the exclusion of firearm licenses from its trade barrier list.