House Ways and Means Committee Amends and Approves AGOA III Bill
On May 5, 2004, the House Ways and Means Committee amended and ordered reported (i.e., approved) H.R. 4103, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Acceleration Act of 2004. (This bill is often referred to as "AGOA III.")
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(The Senate's AGOA bill, the U.S.-Africa Partnership Act, (S. 1900) was introduced and referred to the Senate Finance Committee in November 2003. See ITT's Online Archives or 05/06/04 news, 04050699 1, for BP summary.)
This is Part I of a multi-part series of summaries of H.R. 4103 as amended and ordered reported by the House Ways and Means Committee and focuses on changes to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program (both standard and AGOA-GSP) for AGOA beneficiary countries. See future issues of ITT for additional summaries.
H.R. 4103, as amended and ordered reported ("H.R. 4103"), would:
Extend for AGOA beneficiary countries the standard GSP and AGOA-GSP programs. H.R. 4103 would amend 19 USC 2466b by extending for AGOA beneficiary countries both the standard GSP program (i.e., A, A*, and A) and the AGOA-GSP program (i.e., D), through September 30, 2015.
(Currently, for AGOA beneficiary countries, both the standard GSP program and the AGOA-GSP program are in effect through September 30, 2008.)
Allow inputs from former AGOA beneficiaries that enter into FTAs with U.S. to be used to meet AGOA-GSP 35% value content requirement. H.R. 4103 would amend the AGOA-GSP rules of origin in 19 USC 2466a(b)(2)(B) to allow the cost or value of the materials that are produced in one or more AGOA beneficiary countries or former AGOA beneficiary countries1 to be applied in determining whether an article meets the AGOA-GSP 35% value content requirement.
1 H.R. 4103 would also amend 19 USC 2644a(b)(2)(C) in order to define "former AGOA beneficiary country" as an AGOA beneficiary country that has ceased to be a beneficiary because it entered into a free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S.
(Under existing law, only the cost or value of materials that are produced in current AGOA beneficiary countries can be used to meet the AGOA-GSP 35% value content requirement.)
(See ITT's Online Archives or 04/06/04 news, 04040605, for previous BP summary on H.R. 4103 as introduced.)
House Ways and Means press release (FC 17-A, dated 05/08/04) are available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/legis.asp?formmode=read&id=1438.H.R. 4103 as amended and ordered reported are available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Media/pdf/hr4103/hr4103sub.pdf.
House Ways and Means Committee description of the amendments made to H.R. 4103 during committee mark-up are available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Media/pdf/hr4103/hr4103subdesc.pdf.