Grassley Predicts MTB, GSP Renewal Won't Be Early Next Year
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, won't be leading the Senate Finance Committee next year but said “it's going to take more than a few minutes between staff to work things out” on how to change the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program. “I’m open to some of the things the Democrats hope to get in GSP,” he said Dec. 23 on a phone call with reporters, noting he's interested in promoting human rights, environmental protections and labor standards in other countries. But “some industries and segments of our economy” are going to suffer because the tariff preferences expired, he said. “And it’s just too bad.”
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The cessation of the GSP and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill “benefits no one but hurts many, at a time when they can least afford it,” American Apparel and Footwear Association CEO Steve Lamar said in a news release Dec. 21. He called on the next Congress to retroactively renew both programs as soon as possible.
Democrats “came to us on Nov. 27 with this idea, that they weren't going to go with GSP until this stuff [they want included] was covered,” Grassley told International Trade Today during the call with reporters. “Well, it takes a long time to work it out. That’s why I put in a bill to have a temporary renewal for 18 months, so we could work this out.” Grassley didn't predict how many months it would take to craft a bill to change the program but said it shouldn't take most of 2021. He also said the MTB and GSP shouldn't be tied together, though they have tended to be.