Congress has a full plate of trade issues to consider in the next Congress, and the Republican domination of both houses may bode well for passage of at least some of these important issues, since they may present at least one area where the president and Congress may agree and break the perception of a “do-nothing” government reflected in the recent election results.
Some of the issues that may come up for consideration and actually move include:
— Renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences that expired in 2013.
— Passage of Trade Promotion Authority, that expired in 2007 and would enable the administration to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership with 10 countries, including Vietnam, and present it to Congress for an “up or down” vote without amendment.
— Implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement, concluded in December 2013 and recently assisted by a resolution of a stalemate with India announced at the recent APEC summit in November.
— Renewal and passage of numerous miscellaneous tariff bills that expired in December 2012 that provide critical duty relief for U.S. manufacturers’ imported inputs.
— Renewal of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act that expires in September 2015.
— Renewal of the Nicaragua Tariff Preference Levels under the Central America Free Trade Agreement that allows certain apparel made with non-qualifying fabric to qualify for duty-free treatment.
— Enactment of the Customs Reauthorization Act that contains provisions raising the obsolete de minimis $200 duty exemption for personal imports (critical to Internet purchases) to $800 and amending the provision for duty-free treatment of U.S. goods returned that avoids double-duty assessment on U.S. inputs.
At least with respect to Trade Promotion Authority, by the time this is published, we will know whether the “lame duck” session managed to pass legislation that the departing chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee (Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.) and House Ways and Means Committee (Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich.) had committed to get enacted.
Beth C. Ring, Senior Member, Sandler Travis & Rosenberg