Industry Expresses Widespread Support for Senate Trade Capacity Bill
A group of 27 trade associations on July 26 expressed support for a bill 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 Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). The Global Gateways Trade Capacity Act, which passed committee June 23 (see 1606270034), lays out a strategy much more focused than previous capacity building approaches for strengthening developing countries to bust the most restrictive trade barriers that also hurt U.S. businesses, the groups said in a letter to Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Ranking Member Ben Cardin, D-Md.
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The bill would also open sales opportunities for small and medium-sized U.S. companies, according to the organizations. “A trade capacity building designed and done right can produce significant economic development benefits by tackling governance, regulatory, and customs barriers in developing countries that limit their growth,” said the groups, including the American Apparel and Fashion Association, American Association of Exporters and Importers, and the Express Association of America.
Specifically, the companies lauded the bill’s proposals to charter the TFA pilot, to push greater automation and transparency of U.S. trading partners, and to form a coordinating committee comprising State Department, Office of U.S. Trade Representative, and U.S. Agency for International Development officials, who will develop and send to Congress biennial joint strategic plans 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. Groups also hailed the legislation’s pitch to organize a private sector advisory committee that would help government develop a capacity building strategy by proposing priorities, sharing solutions, and sharing information on the sectors of developing countries that would benefit most from trade capacity assistance.