Senate Foreign Relations OKs Bill To Boost Capacity for Trade With Developing Nations
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a bill June 23 that would boost U.S. aid for expanding trade in developing countries, including a five-year interagency pilot program to help those nations implement trade facilitation reforms and the World Trade Organization…
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Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), the committee said (here). The bill would also create a coordination committee -- made up of State Department, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and U.S. Agency for International Development representatives -- for the purpose of developing and sending to Congress a biennial joint strategic plan that, among other things, will identify obstacles to trade assistance, set performance measures and targets, and give estimates for resources needed to achieve these goals. “Through better coordination and input from the private sector, this legislation will allow us to deliver trade capacity assistance in a far more focused and strategic manner that will expand markets for American businesses by helping the developing world eliminate barriers to trade and investment,” committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said in a statement. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that TFA could substantially lower trade costs for all countries, the committee underscored.