House Democrats Unsure How GSP, MTB Renewal Will Move; China Package Likely to Include Forced Labor

Although the Senate Finance Committee's bipartisan amendment to the China package received 91 votes, some prominent Democrats on trade in the House aren't sure how its provisions could move in their chamber, if Republicans don't agree to calling them up under suspension, which requires a two-thirds vote for passage.

House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., told International Trade Today during a brief hallway interview June 15 at the Capitol that he was just part of a discussion about how best to move the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill renewals this summer.

Kind did not speak favorably about the Senate's trade package's inclusion of a requirement to reinstitute the Section 301 tariff exclusion process for Chinese imports. "Obviously, we're giving the administration a chance to review the 301, as it relates to China," he said. The requirement did allow the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative an out, though, if it could explain why it would weaken the U.S. position.

House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said that his committee's bill will not touch on GSP and MTB, since Ways and Means has jurisdiction, but he said he thinks there is a possibility that renewing those programs will end up in the House China package.

He said he's talking with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman and others "to see if we can get on the same page." He had noticed that the Senate trade amendment received 91 votes, and said a bipartisan package is also his goal. "That's why I pulled the bill from a markup this week, which I had originally scheduled, so we could continue negotiations with my Republican colleagues," he said during a hallway interview June 15.

However, the Foreign Relations Committee has passed a bill with trade implications in the past -- the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which creates a rebuttable presumption that goods made in Xinjiang were made with forced labor. "I think we've got agreement that the Uyghur Act will be in the House bill," Meeks said.

He said the China package is "about ensuring that America is competitive, and leveling this playing field, because what China has done has made it so they're running downhill, and we're running uphill."

He acknowledged that some members say MTB doesn't belong in such a bill, since some of the imports covered by the tariff relief come from China. "It's hard," he said.

Kind does not expect MTB and GSP to move in a China package, and said that moving them before the August recess "might be ambitious, given the total focus on the Jobs Act right now -- it's taking up a lot of time and focus." The Jobs Act is the broad infrastructure bill the administration is pushing for.

Suspension bills don't require much floor time, and Kind said they'd hope to be able to move GSP and MTB that way, but would likely want to add a renewal of Trade Adjustment Assistance. "Usually our Republican friends are somewhat hostile to TAA," he said. He said he thinks the bills might have to wait until September unless Republicans agree to a package that could pass under suspension rules.