The US House and Senate return from a two-week recess on 14 and 13 April, respectively, with Republicans continuing to debate the merits of a second budget reconciliation bill to follow last summer's One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). The discussion centers around possibly using the reconciliation process to enact Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) provisions and other Republican priorities, potentially including the SAVE America Act voter ID bill, the Pentagon's supplemental war funding request and perhaps certain tax measures.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) has stated unequivocally that if there is a reconciliation bill, it will include tax provisions.

Timing remains a major consideration for a second reconciliation bill, however, as attention turns to the midterm elections, effectively closing the possibility of enacting a major bill. Other legislative priorities taking up valuable floor time are also a consideration. For instance, there was speculation before the recess that the Senate could hold a markup of the digital market structure bill in April, after the recess.

The United Nations (UN) Tax Committee met in New York recently to consider the proposed workplans of the subcommittees and ad hoc groups established at its 31st Session in Geneva in October 2025.

The proposed workplans address: the UN Model Tax Convention; the UN treaty negotiation manual; transfer pricing; the digitalized and globalized economy; tax administration and artificial intelligence; indirect taxes; extractive industries; environmental taxation; wealth taxation; tax and gender; and dispute avoidance and resolution. A Global Tax Alert provides details.

In trade news, the World Trade Organization (WTO) failed to extend the Moratorium on Customs Duties and Electronic Transmissions at the 14th Ministerial Conference on 30 March. The US government viewed extension of the moratorium as a priority.

US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer said later the US had "secured commitments from dozens of countries — and nearly all of our major trading partners — not to impose tariffs on U.S. digital transmissions." Following the conference, the US and 22 other WTO member states announced their intention to uphold the expired moratorium on duties on e-commerce until the next WTO ministerial conference, scheduled for 2028.

On 2 April, the Trump Administration announced that the US and the United Kingdom (UK) had finalized an agreement on drug pricing that provides preferential tariff treatment for UK pharmaceutical exports. The latest agreement builds on an agreement in principle that was reached in December 2025.

The deal provides duty-free treatment for UK pharmaceuticals for three years while requiring certain reforms under the UK National Health Service.