Blumenauer Introduces 6-Month GSP Renewal
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., introduced a bill that would add eligibility requirements to the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, including whether the country either has established, or is making continual progress toward establishing, “the rule of law, political pluralism, the right to due process, a fair trial and equal protection under the law,” and whether those countries are working to “reduce poverty, increase the availability of health care and educational opportunities,” among other goals, including combating corruption. It also would predicate eligibility on whether a country effectively enforces its environmental laws and regulations, and is fulfilling its international environmental obligations, including those related to public health.
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The bill would extend the GSP program by six months until June 30, 2021. The program is currently set to expire Dec. 31.
It does not require that countries honor workers' rights and women's rights in order to be eligible, but it does ask the U.S. trade representative and the deputy undersecretary of labor for international affairs to report on the GSP countries' laws on workers' rights and on marriage, custody, gender-based violence and equal pay for women. The first report would be due May 1 next year.
In his news release announcing the bill on Dec. 8, Blumenauer said, “U.S. trade policies are a direct reflection of our values and signal to the world what we, as a nation, hold important. By putting a stronger emphasis on human rights, environmental protections, and support for women and worker rights, we have a unique opportunity to modernize this critical international development program, strengthen our trade relationships, and recommit ourselves to stronger standards abroad and here at home.”
The bill would also require the International Trade Commission to report by May 1 on to what extent the least-developed countries are using the program, how GSP's rule of origin helps those LDCs, and what could be done to prevent transshipment of products through LDCs.
Advocates of GSP have complained that this is not the time to make wholesale revisions to the GSP, given that the program expires at the end of the year and Congress is scheduled to leave town on Dec. 18. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has proposed an 18-month renewal with the current rules.