Both House and Senate Pass Bill to Extend ATPA/ATPDEA to December 31, 2008, Etc.
On February 27, 2008, the House of Representatives amended and passed H.R. 5264 in order to extend the Andean Trade Preference Act, as amended by the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPA/ATPDEA) to December 31, 2008 (from February 29, 2008).
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The Senate passed the identical measure on February 28, 2008. The next step is for the President to sign this measure into law, which is expected. However, it is not known if this will occur before the ATPA/ATPDEA expires on February 29, 2008.
H.R. 5264 will also extend the duty-free ATPA/ATPDEA regional tariff preference level (TPL) for apparel.1
In addition, H.R. 5264 will extend through December 31, 2008 (from December 31, 2006) authority for the President to take certain bilateral emergency tariff actions with respect to ATPDEA apparel.
H.R. 5264 also extends through December 27, 2014 (from December 13, 2014) the merchandise processing fee (MPF) (both formal and informal) and the COBRA user fees.
1The duty-free ATPDEA regional TPL is for apparel sewn or otherwise assembled in one or more ATPDEA beneficiary countries from fabrics, fabric components formed, or components knit-to-shape from ATPDEA/U.S. yarns etc., as specified in Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) 9821.11.25.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 02/15/08 news, 08021505, for BP summary of House Ways and Means approval of this bill, with links to additional information on H.R. 5264's original provisions on CBTA, GSP and the GSP CNLs, and AGOA.
See ITT's Online Archives or 07/06/07 news, 07070610, for BP summary of P.L. 110-42 extending ATPA/ATPDEA to February 29, 2008.)
H.R. 5264, entitled the "Andean Trade Preference Extension Act of 2008," as passed by the House and Senate available at http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h5264_enr.xml.