Rep. Kind Says TPA Will Not Get Vote This Year, GSP Renewal More Likely
Rep. Ron Kind, one of the leading pro-trade voices in the Democratic caucus, told the Washington International Trade Association that Trade Promotion Authority will not get a renewal vote this year. The legislation, which allows fast-track approval of trade agreements, is good through June 30, 2021. “That might be a reach too far, here in this election cycle,” he said in an online interview with WITA on June 3. “I think we’ll have to wait and see how the dust settles in November.”
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For the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, which expires at the end of the year, Kind was more hopeful, though he noted that the ability to get legislation done in the fall this year is limited, due to election season, and July will be busy with appropriations bills. Still, he said that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., “are looking for those windows of opportunity where you can get it to the House floor.”
He said, “I wouldn’t at all be surprised if we have a fairly robust lame duck [session] with the must-do items that have to pass.”
The biggest beneficiary of GSP, India, has been barred from the program for a year over complaints about dairy access to that market and price controls on medical devices. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative just announced that an investigation into India's desire to tax digital goods is under investigation (see 2006020043).
While Kind expressed some hope that a Biden administration would work to repair relationships with allies irritated by Section 232 tariffs, he also said he's worried about whether the relationship with China would continue to be poor next year. “I think psychologically, at a time of crisis, it’s awfully easy to demonize outsiders, multilateral organizations, other countries,” he said. He said it will take a lot of work to convince average Americans not to blame trade in a time of “increased economic anxiety.”
“I’m very fearful as far as how this 2020 campaign is shaping up,” he said. “This could turn into a huge China-bashing exercise, and could sour the American people about where we need to go in our basic relationship with China.”
He said, “arousing the populist anger of the American people towards China, I don’t think is going to serve us very well.”
Kind said he's been talking to those who would shape the trade agenda in a Biden administration. He said he's asking whether the U.S.'s approach to China “will just descend into a complete adversarial relationship, or if there’s a way to manage it in a constructive fashion, while still demanding more of them.” He said without allies, it's impossible to make progress, and he said Biden recognizes our trade policy “is off the rails” and hurting both exporters and manufacturers that rely on imported inputs.