House approves TAA, trade preference programs

The U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of a trade preferences bill and an extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance, a program designed to assist workers negatively affected by free trade agreements.    The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted to approve a trade preferences bill and an extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance. The bills now go to the White House, where President Obama is expected to sign them into law along with Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).
   Trade Adjustment Assistance, a support program for workers who lose their jobs when manufacturers relocate factories overseas, was used as a political football by Democratic opponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement who argue that trade deals lead to jobs being exported to low-wage countries.
   TPA provides for any trade deals negotiated by Obama or his successor over the next six years to receive expedited consideration by Congress. TPA was originally made conditional on passage of Trade Adjustment Assistance by a Senate vote, so House Democrats voted against TAA to kill the TPA. Republican leaders then mounted a counter strategy that decoupled the bills and moved TPA through the House first and then back to the Senate, where it was approved earlier this week. The Senate then voted on TAA and sent it to the House.
   The Trade Preferences Act of 2015 includes a 10-year extension of duty preferences for imports under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, renews the Haiti HOPE/HELP trade program and reauthorizes the Generalized System of Preferences retroactive to July 31, 2013, when it expired.
   Importers will be able to get refunds for duties paid that would have been covered under GSP if it had been active. The duty refunds will not be automatic, as has been the case with prior reauthorizations of GSP that occurred following lapses in the program, according to a client bulletin from law firm Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP.
   Instead, importers will have to file a refund request with U.S. Customs and Border Protection within six months of the effective date of the law. Importers can expect delays receiving refunds because Customs needs to review requests covering nearly two years of entries, the law firm said.
   The bill also includes provisions making it easier for domestic companies to claim injury under anti-dumping and counterveiling duty laws and gives the Department of Commerce greater discretion in determining duty margins against imported goods.
   Meanwhile, a customs reauthorization bill has gone to a conference committee to work out differences between the House and Senate versions.
   “Congress’ actions show the world that the U.S. is still a trading nation at heart,” Marianne Rowden, president of the American Association of Importers and Exporters, said in a statement.