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GSP Lapse Major Topic in Ways and Means Trip to South America

House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., led a bipartisan trip to Argentina, Paraguay and Chile, where they heard from Argentina and Paraguay how crucial the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program is to the trading relationship.

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"Legislation to renew the program and reform it to better counter China and help U.S. agriculture passed out of the Ways and Means Committee earlier this year," said a press release describing the delegation's trip.

The Paraguayan president and trade minister talked with the group on how to remove barriers to trade, "including through improvements in intellectual property enforcement as well as renewing GSP."

The press release noted that Argentinian-U.S. two-way trade was $17.8 billion last year, with a $5 billion trade surplus for the U.S., and that the U.S. also has a small surplus in the $3 billion two-way trade relationship with Paraguay.

Chile, which has a free-trade agreement with the U.S., does about twice as much trade with the U.S. as its neighbor Argentina, despite Argentina having an economy almost twice the size of Chile's. The U.S. exports about $3 billion more to Chile than it imports from Chile. The press release said trade officials and the House members talked about ways to strengthen ties while countering Chinese influence in Chile, "particularly through high-standard mining and processing of critical minerals and other commodities."