More than 30 organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, asked House and Senate leadership to hold a vote on the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program during the lame duck session next month.
African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) allows duty-free importation of goods from designated sub-Saharan African countries. The program was authorized in 2000 and is intended to promote good governance through economic development and access to free markets. It will expire in September 2025, and it remains uncertain whether Congress will reauthorize it.
Although some trade attorneys have been worrying that a Trump administration will discourage a Republican Congress from bringing back Generalized System of Preferences program tariff breaks for developing countries, members of the House Ways and Means Committee did not endorse that point of view.
NEW YORK -- Tyler Beckelman, a Commerce deputy assistant secretary who also sits on the interagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, told a garment industry audience that the Biden administration still intends to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking on de minimis "before we all turn into pumpkins on Jan. 20."
The agendas of both major presidential candidates would provide few incentives for other countries to negotiate new trade agreements with the U.S., a former Commerce Department official said Oct. 31.
Because China makes 90% of anode and cathode materials, and dominates processing of critical minerals, no matter where they are mined, recent hikes in tariffs on Chinese minerals will do little, trade experts agreed.
There has been some concern that South Africa could be removed from the African Growth and Opportunity Act beneficiary list over its government's lack of support for Ukraine after Russia invaded (see 2307120041). Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who voted against sending financial and military aid to Ukraine earlier this year, is arguing that South Africa should be booted from AGOA coverage if Taiwan's diplomatic office is closed in Pretoria. The South African government has demanded that Taiwan move its office to Johannesburg, the country's most important commercial city. Taiwan has so far refused.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in responses to Senate Finance Committee members, talked about changes needed in USMCA, declined to endorse a permanent e-commerce tariff moratorium and called for more money for CBP, to address Section 301 tariff circumvention.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies "Trade Guys" said that while there is some pressure on Congress to get the Generalized Systems of Preferences benefits program renewed, and restrict de minimis, competing pressures make it unlikely bills will become law this year.
Senators criticized both Congress and the administration's lack of action to use lower tariffs to build relationships in the developing world, at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on strategic competition with China. The hearing, which was meant to focus on China's influence in Africa, Latin America and Europe, and what the U.S. could do to counter it, was held July 30.
African journalists asked Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa Constance Hamilton and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs Joy Basu if their countries would stay in or return to the African Growth and Opportunity Act.