Grassley Sees Good Chance of GSP Renewal in 2020
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that there's “a good chance” that the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, will be renewed in Congress before it expires at the end of the year. He said to International Trade Today that the only controversy around GSP is that India was removed because it wasn't “living up to other things we want.”
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Grassley, who was speaking on a conference call with reporters June 23, said he's in favor of using trade policy to move other countries to treat women more fairly at work -- which Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., are asking to link to GSP. “If women aren’t being treated right, we have got to work on that, just like we work on children not being treated right,” he said. But he asked, “Is this really connected to GSP, or is this not more connected to our regular trade negotiations?”
Grassley defended the administration's move to leave the talks on digital service taxes at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “We pulled out, I think, because we’re sick and tired of not making progress, and we want to show our muscle,” he said. If European countries are frustrated by the U.S. position on digital taxes, and if those countries want to raise the money that way, he said, “they'd be hit with tariffs.” The U.S. has already identified French products to tax in the case of a DST, (see 2001060040), but did not implement the tariffs, because France is waiting for an OECD settlement.
Grassley was asked about White House adviser Peter Navarro's comment on TV June 22 that the China trade deal was “done and over.” Grassley noted that stock futures dropped sharply when Navarro spoke. “Just put a sock in his mouth, and don’t let him speak publicly,” Grassley said. President Donald Trump later tweeted after the Navarro interview that “The China Trade Deal is fully intact. Hopefully they will continue to live up to the terms of the Agreement!” Navarro's claims were “just groundless and absurd,” a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson responded during a June 23 press conference. “He’s always full of lies and has zero credibility.”