Industry News

Trade Continues to be an Active Topic in Congress

May 19, 2010


Despite the relatively congested congressional agenda, key members of both the House and Senate are continuing to push a number of trade related measures on the Hill, including customs reauthorization, trade preference program reform, and the miscellaneous tariff bill.

Customs Reauthorization: The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on May 20 to discuss options for CBP to facilitate legitimate trade and enforce U.S. trade and other laws in a safe and secure environment. The Senate Finance Committee has already introduced reauthorization legislation and concluded its own hearing in October. For its part, the House is expected to introduce its own legislation by the August recess. Senate Finance leaders are said to favor legislation that restores some balance between CBP’s security and trade facilitation missions, but House leaders have sounded a more cautious approach. Either way, the new legislation will likely produce a reshuffling of CBP’s trade offices and an expansion of Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) benefits.

Trade Preferences: The Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee have been working together on legislation to substantially reform U.S. trade preference programs since they held a hearing on the subject in March. Additionally, Congress has already passed legislation expanding trade benefits for Haiti. However, prospects of broader reform diminished severely when Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), the House’s most powerful proponent of preference programs, stepped down as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in late 2009.

Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB): Although the House Republican’s self-imposed ban on earmarks has been interpreted to include duty suspensions, Republicans and Democrats alike are hopeful that they will find a way to move the bill forward. House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), is on record as saying the ban should not apply to the MTB, but is still withholding his support from the bill due to the Republican leadership’s directive on earmarks. Meanwhile, Democrats are unwilling to push the measure forward without at least some Republican support.

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs): Pending FTA’s with Colombia and Panama continue to be brought up occasionally, with the latter likely to go first should the Obama administration decide to act. Meanwhile, the Korea FTA seems to be languishing.