Senate Finance Also Schedules Preference Programs Hearing (Baucus Expects GSP/ATPA Extension This Year)
The Senate Finance Committee has announced that it will hold a hearing on the options for reforming U.S. Preference Programs on November 19, 2009. Testimony will be heard from four witnesses, including those representing labor.
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(The House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee had earlier announced that it will hold a hearing on the future of U.S. preference programs two days earlier, on November 17, 2009. See ITT's Online Archives or 11/11/09 news, 09111105, for BP summary.)
Baucus Expects GSP, ATPA/ATPDEA to be Extended Before They Expire Dec 31
In a November 10, 2009 speech, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus predicted that GSP and the Andean trade preference programs would be extended before they expire on December 31, 2009. He expects the extensions to be short-term, but longer than six months. Senate Finance Committee sources add that Baucus has been working with the Committee's Ranking Member Grassley on a preference program reform package, and wants the extensions to ensure that the current programs will not lapse during the reform effort.
(The Generalized System of Preferences program (i.e., A, A*, and A) for most beneficiary countries, i.e., other than those listed as African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beneficiary countries, will expire on December 31, 2009, unless a law extending it is enacted. In addition, the Andean Trade Preference Act/Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPA/ATPDEA) is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2009 (for Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador).)
(See ITT's Online Archives or 08/19/09 news, 09081915, for most recent BP summary on GSP's scheduled expiration December 31st. See ITT's Online Archives or 10/09/09 news, 09100905, for BP summary of the trade's request that Congress make immediate GSP renewal a priority.)
Senate Finance hearing announcement available at http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing111909.html