House Passes Customs Reauthorization
The House voted 257-158 on Dec. 11 to adopt the conference version of customs reauthorization legislation that combines the underlying concepts of the Senate-proposed ENFORCE Act and House-introduced PROTECT Act. The vote marks a step forward for the legislation, which will need approval from the Senate before going to President Obama for signature. Lawmakers earlier this week reached a deal on the bill, which includes some new features, such as revised deadlines for CBP reliquidations of entries (see 1512100024).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 was passed amid opposition from the majority of House democratic rank-and-file, among them top House democrat on the customs reauthorization Conference Committee Sandy Levin, Mich. Twenty-five democrats joined the vast majority of the GOP in voting for passage.
Like several of his party colleagues, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said he wished more pro-environmental language was included in the bill, but supports it because of its wide-ranging provisions targeting customs enforcement and social justice issues. “It codifies the ENFORCE Act, some of the most strict enforcement provisions ever on trade by U.S. legislation,” Connolly said during floor debate. “It creates an interagency trade enforcement center; it creates a trade enforcement trust fund; it provides protections for small businesses, and bans child-enforced labor. I would prefer to see stronger pro-environmental provisions, but this enforcement bill—trade enforcement bill—is a significant move forward.”
Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., said the agreement should relax burdensome trade regulations. “It removes unnecessary barriers to trade, and the bill couldn’t come at a more important time,” he said during floor debate. “We are in the midst of the opportunity to compete in two of the most ambitious trade agreements in our nation’s history.”
The completed bill also garnered predominantly positive reactions from industry after its Dec. 9 completion. The Express Association of America urged Congress to send the bill to President Barack Obama for signature, saying that it's “vital” to streamlining border clearances, ensuring CBP maintains a “strong partnership” with the trade community, and modernizing procedures that should help small- and medium-sized businesses gain access to the 21st century economy. EAA includes DHL, FedEx Express, TNT, and UPS.
“The House and Senate are to be commended for completing the Conference Committee work on this important piece of legislation and producing a bill with strong bipartisan support," EAA Executive Director Michael Mullen said in a statement. "The final bill includes numerous measures that will facilitate the development of ecommerce, including simplified customs procedures for low value shipments and for U.S. goods returned, and strengthen the ability of small and medium U.S. exporters to participate in global markets.”
But the bill wasn’t passed without detractors, as groups immediately expressed concern over its exclusion of an online sales tax and a definite path forward for implementation of a miscellaneous tariff bill (MTB). Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) Vice President William Allmond said addressing MTB in the conference report should have been an “easy task,” and said many members have been “locked out” of the process. “SOCMA members' ability to innovate is one of the few sources of competitive advantage, and without the MTB, they incur higher prices for raw materials, R&D activity becomes more difficult, and their competitiveness declines in the global marketplace,” Allmond said (here).
The National Retail Federation on Dec. 10 in a statement told Congress to reject the bill unless it absorbs a new provision allowing states to require online merchants to collect the same sales taxes as brick-and-mortar stores. NRF Senior Vice President of Government Relations David French wrote a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expressing concern about the bill’s impact on physical retailers and other “downstream” consumers. “As more and more Main Street retailers close their doors because they cannot compete, it is time for Congress to remove the sales tax advantage for internet sellers that is harming our communities,” French wrote. “We need a level playing field so retailers can compete without the government advantaging one sector of the industry over another.”
A labor union joined these groups and some Democrats in expressing discontent over the bill. AFL-CIO wrote a letter to the House urging members to strike down the legislation, bashing the bill for what it called weak language on currency manipulation and human trafficking. “While the bill does contain [the] ENFORCE Act, which would address the circumvention of antidumping and countervailing duties and assist with addressing unfair trade, other provisions in this bill remain unacceptable.”