Top Democrat on Ways and Means Committee Says GSP Can Pass Before Summer
The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said that he thinks a renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program can get through Congress in the next three months.
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"There's a lot of support for the issue in the chamber," he said in a hallway interview at the Capitol. He said that in a recent conversation with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, she was optimistic about the passage of a bill that would include refunds of the tariffs paid on GSP-eligible imports during the more than three years GSP has been lapsed.
However, Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said that some were talking about only partial retroactivity, or not refunding tariffs paid since GSP ended, in order to make the pay-for smaller, and potentially renew the program for a longer period. Smith said he doesn't support that position (see 2402230053).
Ways and Means member Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., a pro-trade Democrat, said of that issue: "I've not talked to Adrian about it. It would certainly seem that the way politics works, that eliminating the retroactivity may make it easier going forward, because it makes it less expensive. And you can make the argument that the people who continued to trade, export and import over those years, didn't do it with the confidence GSP would be back. That was a risk that they were taking. In terms of a trade-off, if you could get five or six years moving forward, instead of three up and three back, that seems like a fair trade-off."
Neal said that a three-year renewal is "a good number" but that he was not pre-judging the length of renewal that is feasible. "You need some predictability," he said, so importers can plan about where to buy goods.
Smith also talked about the importance of passing a Miscellaneous Tariff Bill.
Neal said he didn't know if an MTB could move with a GSP bill, "but I'm always in favor of taking up Miscellaneous Tariff Bills. I think they solve a lot of problems."
Beyer agreed. "I'd love them to move together. I think we need to do both, and I don't know what the possibility is."
Neal said he and Tai also talked about trade with Ghana and Kenya, and establishing "a larger footprint for the United States in Africa. That's pretty consistent with my beliefs."
He added that the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which runs through Sept. 30, 2025, is "really important, and I don't think letting it lapse is a good idea."