Industry News
Congress Overrides President's Veto of Farm Bill
May 28, 2008
On May 22, Congress overrode President Bush's veto of H.R. 2419, the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the Farm Bill), with votes of 82-13 and 318-106, respectively in the Senate and the House. Despite a clerical error, 14 of the 15 titles included in the bill have been enacted into law. The approved trade-related provisions include:
- Two year extension of the U.S.-Caribbean Trade Partnership Act (CBTA)
- Delayed implementation of revisions to CBP's “first sale” rule
- Unused merchandise drawback for wine
- Haitian HOPE II
- Ethyl alcohol, including duty drawback
- Import quota program for upland cotton
- Sugar
- Dairy Exports
- Declarations for imported plants
- Identification of Honey
- Catfish
- Country of origin labeling for beef, lamb, pork, goat, chicken, wild fish, macadamia nuts, ginseng, and pecans
- A trichinae certification program for exports
- The importation of live dogs for resale
- An extension of customs user fees and MPFs
Title III (Trade) of H.R. 2419 was accidentally omitted from the enrolled bill. On May 22, the House took action to correct the error by passing all 15 titles of the Farm Bill under a new bill number (H.R. 6124). It is not yet known when the Senate will take action to enact the omitted title. The trade-related provisions in Title III awaiting the Senate’s approval include:
- Softwood lumber importer declaration program
- GSM-102 Export Credit Guarantees
- Market access for organics
- Repeal of export enhancement program
- Imported agricultural products and child labor.
WTO chief Pascal Lamy criticized the bill, saying it could injure global trade talks by sending a “bad signal” that the U.S. is not serious about lower its agricultural subsidies.
