House Majority Leader Says TAA Renewal Needs to Be in China Bill

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he hopes to get "the essence of an agreement" on merging the House and Senate China bills by the end of this month. "I don't mean we're going to have everything agreed to." He said he hopes that each committee delegation can either settle or get very close to finishing their segments by then, though he said some issues will have to be passed up to leadership. "And then I'm hopeful we can get the Competes bill done by the end of next month. That I know is a very ambitious, perhaps naive expectation." He acknowledged there are "real differences" between the two versions.

During a May 17 reporters round table at the capitol, Hoyer said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., feels that including Trade Adjustment Assistance is critical in the merged trade title.

"Neal is saying if you're going to do what [Sen. Mike] Crapo [R-Idaho] wants to do, then you need a new trade adjustment as well," Hoyer said, adding: "And I share that position." He noted that TAA renewal has generally been linked to trade promotion authority. However, the Senate's trade title does not call for trade promotion authority. It does not have much trade liberalization, though it does suggest that the administration should pursue plurilateral agreements at the World Trade Organization. The most significant effort to lower tariffs in the Senate that is not in the House version is mandating the return of all lapsed Section 301 tariffs, and opening a new tariff exclusion process, with more importer-friendly criteria. However, the Senate version says the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative can choose not to do this if it says that doing so would undermine the trade action. USTR Katherine Tai has said this would undermine her leverage.