The House passed Commerce Department appropriations legislation, HR-2578 (here), on June 3 with a partisan 242-183 vote in favor. Only 12 Democrats supported the legislation, and 10 Republicans opposed (here). President Barack Obama recently railed against the legislation for underfunding trade agencies, such as the International Trade Administration and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (see 1506020065).
Customs brokers, freight forwarders and importers pushed House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., to “quickly” pass the Senate-approved trade preference package in a June 3 letter (here). Senate lawmakers made changes to the package, after legislators in both chambers introduced the same preference legislation in April (see 1504200052). Both packages comprise renewals for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Generalized System of Preference and two Haiti tariff preference level programs.
Lawmakers introduced the following trade-related bills since International Trade Today's last legislative update:
More than 1,000 companies and industry associations pushed lawmakers in a June 3 letter to urgently pass Export-Import Bank reauthorization ahead of the looming June 30 expiration of the credit agency. "Failure to secure a long-term reauthorization of Ex-Im would amount to unilateral disarmament in the face of other governments’ far more aggressive export credit programs, which have provided their own exporters with significant financing support in recent years,” said the letter (here). “If Ex-Im is not reauthorized before June 30, American companies would be put at a unique disadvantage in global markets, resulting immediately in lost sales and lost jobs. U.S. businesses of all sizes would be deprived of a vital financing source at a time when boosting exports is increasingly vital to growing our nation’s economy and jobs.”
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce recently took the Food and Drug Administration to task over the agency’s practices regarding “untitled letters.” In a May 27 letter (here) from Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy, R-Pa., the committee noted inconsistencies in how the agency makes the untitled letters available to the public, and questioned the circumstances under which an untitled letter was issued in one particular case where an agency inspection had found no violations.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee overwhelmingly approved the Toxic Substances Control Act of 2015, HR-2576 (here), during a markup on June 3. Lawmakers voted 47 in favor with no opposition votes and one abstention. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., abstained after committee officials pressured her to withdraw an amendment to strengthen the ability to maintain state toxic substances regulations alongside federal law.
Congress should “withhold” Trade Promotion Authority until U.S. negotiators steer Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations toward a final pact that will more substantially benefit U.S. workers and global consumers, said House Ways and Means ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., in another rebuke of TPP on June 1 (here). The House is edging toward votes on TPA and other trade legislation, and Levin has repeatedly over recent months released criticisms of both TPP and the TPA bill moving through the legislative process (see 1505280065). The TPA bill, crafted by Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Finance ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., “woefully” fails to put in place assurances for rules on currency, the environment, labor and market access in future free trade agreements, such as TPP, said Levin. Levin again championed the merits of his alternate TPA (see 1505220017). The number of House Democrats expected to vote in favor of TPA is now at roughly 20, say experts (see 1505310002).
House Republican leadership isn’t scheduled to hold trade votes during any specific week this month, said Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in a memo he released to Republican colleagues in recent days that outlines the June agenda. The chamber will “likely consider” Trade Promotion Authority and Trade Adjustment Assistance on the floor at some point in the month, however, and at that time, the House will consider the preference package and Customs Reauthorization. The preference package includes renewals for the Generalized System of Preferences, the African Growth and Opportunity Act and two Haiti tariff preference level programs. Trade experts say House leadership is taking its time to ensure it has the votes to pass TPA and TAA, despite calls for quick passage of the bills (see 1505310002).
U.S. negotiators are pressuring Trans-Pacific Partnership countries to agree to patent and copyright rules that will strongly benefit U.S. corporations at the expense of global consumers, and those rules represent a “step backwards” from previous free trade agreements, said House Ways and Means ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., on May 28. Levin made that argument in his latest in a series of TPP critiques (here). U.S. intellectual property proposals in TPP would deprive millions of global consumers access to life-saving, generic medicines, he said.
President Barack Obama gained Trade Promotion Authority support from another House Democrat on May 28, as Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., said he aims to vote in favor of the legislation (here). Larsen is a member of the New Democrat Coalition, which Obama has targeted as TPA supporters. Some onlookers say the number of House Democrats has now reached roughly a dozen and a half (here).