Lawmakers Begin Talks on Reconciling Offset Differences in Preference Packages
Senate and House trade leaders are beginning to negotiate over a compromise payment mechanism in the Senate-passed preference package and its House counterpart, said a Senate Finance Committee aide on June 9. House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in recent days the preference packages will go to legislative conference over the different offsets (see 1506040066).
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The Senate-approved bill, HR-1295 (here), tacks on far more payment mechanisms than the House legislation, HR-1891 (here). The full House hasn’t yet acted on trade, but a vote may come as early as the final days of this week (see 1506080013). Committee officials have declined to comment on the differences in the two payment schemes (see 1506040066). Both bills include renewals for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Generalized System of Preferences and two Haiti tariff preference level programs.
The trade community recently urged Ryan and Ways and Means ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., to pressure lawmakers to simply pass the Senate legislation in order to send a bill to President Barack Obama as quickly as possible (see 1506040007). But lawmakers in both chambers instead aim to strike a compromise during conference, said the Finance aide. “We are working to determine how we can potentially resolve differences between the Senate product and what Ways and Means reported,” said the aide. Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., led the effort to push trade bills out of committee and onto the Senate floor. Both lawmakers worked closely with Ryan during that process, they’ve said.
The Senate bill also includes tariff changes for performance outwear, as well as the GSP Update Act and the Affordable Footwear Act (see 1504230001). Those provisions are absent in the House bill, but Ryan said House lawmakers will endorse them in a final bill.