President Signs FTA Bills, GSP/MPF/TAA Bill on Oct 21
In a toned-down signing ceremony, President Obama signed the GSP/MPF/TAA bill, as well as the Korea, Panama, and Colombia FTA implementing bills, on Friday, October 21, 2011 in the Oval Office. However, there was only still photographs taken, and he made no remarks in the Rose Garden as originally announced.
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FTA bills/ATPDEA. Both the House and Senate passed the three FTA implementing bills, H.R. 3078 (Colombia), H.R. 3079 (Panama), and H.R. 3080 (Korea) on October 12, 2011. The Colombia FTA bill also has a provision that renews the Andean Trade Preference Act/Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPA/ATPDEA) program. The bills were sent to the President on October 13, 2011 and signed into law on October 21 as Public Law (P.L.) 112-42, P.L. 112-43, and P.L. 112.41, respectively.
(See ITT’s Online Archives 11101306 for summary of the passage by Congress of the FTA bills. See ITT’s Online Archives 11101417 for summary of the next steps for implementing the Korea, Colombia, and Panama FTAs. See ITT's Online Archives 11101907 for summary of the renewal and retroactivity provisions for the ATPA/ATPDEA program, including the refund steps U.S. Customs and Border Inspection (CBP) is expected to follow.)
GSP/MPF/TAA bill. The House passed H.R. 2832, the bill to retroactively renew the Generalized System of Preferences program, renew and revise Trade Adjustment Assistance, and make various Merchandise Processing Fee adjustments on October 12, 2011. That bill was passed by the Senate on September 22, 2011. The bill was presented to the President on October 13, 2011 and signed into law as P.L. 112-40 on October 21.
(See ITT’s Online Archives 11101305 for summary of House passage of GSP/MPF/TAA bill. See ITT's Online Archives 11101818 for summary of the renewal and retroactivity provisions for the GSP program, including the refund steps CBP is expected to follow. See ITT's Online Archives 11101111 for summary of various Merchandise Processing Fee provisions in this bill, as well as the MPF provisions in the Korea and Colombia FTA bills.)
USTR statement issued after publication available here.