Neal Suggests Republicans Will Fold on TAA, Making Way for GSP, MTB Renewal
When asked if decoupling renewal of two tariff-lifting programs from a reauthorization of Trade Adjustment Assistance is a non-starter, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., told International Trade Today, "Well, I'd certainly want to discuss it with [Republicans] ... they all have to be done in some shape or form."
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The top Republican on the committee, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, has said that the Democrats' insistence that TAA move with the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill is the biggest barrier to getting MTB and GSP through Congress (see 2209140056).
Neal suggested that Republicans' hostility to renewing TAA would fade when Democrats bargain around an end-of-year tax extenders package. "There's a lot of things they're going to want at the end of this session," Neal said in a hallway interview Sept. 20. Neal expressed similar confidence in July that GSP/MTB would come together at the end of the year (see 2207290052).
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., the ranking Republican on the trade subcommittee, told International Trade Today in a hallway interview Sept. 20 that he doesn't know if there's a path to get MTB and GSP renewed if Democrats continue to tie it to TAA. "I'm disappointed we've been talking about it for a year and a half, so I'm not very optimistic," he said. "Unfortunately, there's not much focus in terms of trade, FTAs, or any other kind of agreement."
Buchanan said that if he is able to lead the committee in the next Congress, "We're going to be very aggressive about getting those things pushed forward."
On Sept. 19, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., introduced a bill that would refund the tariffs paid for goods during 2021 and the first eight months of 2022 that would have been eligible for GSP if it had been in effect. Those tariffs will be refunded at the time of renewal, since renewal is retroactive, as long as importers have been designating the goods as GSP-eligible. This bill would just get the refund done before a renewal bill passes. It has two co-sponsors from the Florida delegation, one Republican, one Democrat.