Brokers, Importers Call on House to Pass Senate-Approved Preference Package
Customs brokers, freight forwarders and importers pushed House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., to “quickly” pass the Senate-approved trade preference package in a June 3 letter (here). Senate lawmakers made changes to the package, after legislators in both chambers introduced the same preference legislation in April (see 1504200052). Both packages comprise renewals for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Generalized System of Preference and two Haiti tariff preference level programs.
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The Senate-approved bill, HR-1295 (here), in contrast to the House counterpart, HR-1891 (here), includes tariff changes for performance outwear, as well as the GSP Update Act and the Affordable Footwear Act (see 1504230001). House leadership will have to pass the Senate-approved bill in order to avoid sending the legislation back to the Senate for a second approval. The June 3 letter, signed by the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, the American Apparel and Footwear Association and more than two dozen other trade associations, insisted on House action on the provisions tacked onto the Senate bill.
House leadership said the chamber will move on the preference package once it takes up Trade Promotion Authority. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said leadership is aiming to take up trade legislation this month, but McCarthy didn’t target a specific week (see 1506010036). Levin declined to endorse the other trade bills under consideration, and the preference package is the one bill supported by bipartisan leadership on the Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees.