GSP Program Won't Ride With CBTPA Renewal, House Staffer Says
House Trade Subcommittee staffers are working “to make sure” that the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act gets a vote before Sept. 30, when the program expires, a Democratic trade staffer said Sept. 15. She said that the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program will not be voted on this month. Several Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee had said they wanted GSP to hitch a ride with CBTPA, including the committee's top Republican, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
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But the staffer said they're hoping to get the GSP passed before the end of the year. The House will begin conversations in earnest with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative once CBTPA is renewed. Some Republican members' position on GSP won't become clear “until we have some inkling where Ambassador [Robert] Lighthizer and the Trump administration are,” she said. But she said the committee is treating renewal as an urgent matter. The last time GSP expired, it was not renewed for 13 months after it expired. “We need to move away from these after-the-fact renewals,” she said.