Miscellaneous Trade Bill Introduced in the House

December 17, 2009

Yesterday, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sander M. Levin (D-MI) introduced a miscellaneous tariff bill (H.R. 4380) comprised of over 600 measures from the last session of Congress that would temporarily lower or suspend tariffs on imported goods. Many of these measures sought to extend existing tariff provisions that are set to expire on December 31, 2009. 

However, since yesterday was the last legislative day of 2009 for the House of Representatives, the omnibus will have to wait until January for consideration. As a result, existing duty suspensions that importers were benefiting from will expire, despite the fact that the House had over two years to act on extension requests.

Separately, the Senate is working to compile its own omnibus miscellaneous tariff consisting of measures introduced in the current session of Congress. The Senate Finance Committee has not yet indicated when it will introduce such a bill, but now that the House has adjourned for 2009, it is likely to wait until early next year.

However, since the Senate is still in session, members of the trade community are hopeful that it will pass H.R. 4284, to extend the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) beyond their December 31st expiration dates, before adjourning for 2009.