Ways and Means Republican Staffer Says Conference Not Place to Hash Out de Minimis Changes

A Republican staffer from the House Ways and Means Committee said that while Republicans are certainly open to having a discussion on the balance between preserving the benefit to small businesses of importing goods under the de minimis statute and the need for improvements, a conference committee on a massive China package is not the right venue for it.

He said that Republicans believe any changes to de minimis are better made in the CBP-led 21st Century Customs Framework. In the next few months, he said, there cannot be enough information or analysis on what the effects would be of eliminating China from de minimis eligibility. There are a number of arguments in Trade Subcommittee Earl Blumenauer's bill that may not be supported by data, he said, even though Republicans acknowledge there may need to be refinements to de minimis, given the vast number of packages entering under the statute.

House Republican staffers questioned whether the America COMPETES Act (see 2201260029) could even pass the House, as they project united Republican opposition, and wondered if there would be defections among progressives.

The trade staffer, who was speaking on a phone call with reporters, said that if there is a conference committee, House Republicans do see trade elements that could get enough bipartisan support to make it into the compromise bill. House Republicans introduced a bill last June that mirrored the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program renewal that was in the Senate's China package, and that also renewed the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill without the restriction that Blumenauer, D-Ore., proposed, that would remove consumer goods from future lists (see 2106230027).

When asked by International Trade Today if the trade remedy law changes have enough bipartisan support to make it into the compromise bill, the staffer said that while the Senate and House bills (see 2104160037 and 2112020053) do have aspects that Ways and Means Republicans support, they feel that major updates to trade remedy laws should be part of a bigger package that also leads to trade liberalization. The House bill has a Republican co-sponsor, but he is not on the Ways and Means Committee, and the staffer said there should be a committee process for such a technical bill.

The trade staffers did not say they have a plan yet to offer amendments to the bill in the Rules Committee. Generally, the Republican staffers, who represented all the committees that would have a role on a conference committee, said that submitting such a lengthy, partisan bill makes moving China competition from rhetoric to a law more difficult and less likely to happen in the near term.