Senate Finance Chair Crapo Lists FTAs, Customs Modernization as Priorities
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said his trade priorities for the next two years are supporting the negotiation of comprehensive free trade deals that expand market access for American producers, supporting the negotiation of digital trade rules and intellectual property protections, and reauthorizing key trade programs.
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In a statement about his vision for work on the Senate Finance Committee, he complained that the Biden administration abdicated its responsibility to negotiate free trade agreements.
Tiffany Smith, vice president of global trade policy at the National Foreign Trade Council, said her group has consistently been calling for this change. "We think that’s encouraging," she said of Crapo's support for tariff-lowering FTAs.
"One of the exciting things about Chairman Crapo’s agenda is it really does reflect the opportunities of trade," she said. "There’s been a lot of focus on defensive interests. The fact that his agenda is balanced is a good thing."
Smith said she doesn't know if the new administration will work to open other countries to U.S. exports through FTAs, but said the track record last time suggests it could.
"The previous Trump administration launched a Kenya deal, they also initiated with the U.K., and we had the phase one deal with Japan," she said, with the promise of more to come. She noted that there has been bipartisan support for a Kenya FTA. "Kenya's fairly far along with what has been under negotiation," she said.
Smith said NFTC had been disappointed when the Biden administration chose to step back from negotiating digital trade rules at the World Trade Organization. She said of Crapo's interest in technical barriers to trade, IP and digital trade, all three are very important to NFTC members.
"If we’re going to have deals with strategic partners, we would hope that digital would be on the table," she said.
Crapo wrote: "It is also well past time to modernize our customs laws to empower our law enforcement agents with the necessary tools and authorities to secure our borders from illegal drugs, counterfeit products and other dangerous goods while ensuring legitimate commerce can proceed swiftly and efficiently."
Given how much time the committee will need to dedicate to expiring tax cuts in 2025, it's unclear if customs modernization will have to wait until 2026. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who will be leading the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this Congress, has been a leader in that effort, joined by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., on various aspects of a bill to rework CBP's trade enforcement and trade facilitation.