Neal, Brady Call for Action on MTB/GSP Now That Trade Is Out of USICA

Congress is abandoning its effort to compromise on its two China packages as the Senate moves to pass a pared-down bill that will provide financial incentives for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. What exactly is in the bill isn't yet known, but none of the trade title is expected to survive.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill: "Those are priorities for me. We will get those straightened out. As soon as I can." He said he's in favor of passing them before the August recess.

Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on Ways and Means, said during a July 19 phone call with reporters that since Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and House Democrats all support the same text to renew GSP and MTB, "I'm hopeful we can find a solution there."

"I worry that the demands for [renewing] Trade Adjustment Assistance will continue to override the conversations in the trade area," he said, since he'd like to get GSP and MTB done. He said he also supports the Competitive Need Limitation changes introduced by Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., and Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla. (see 2205230058).

Brady said he only supports TAA in the context of the White House being willing to negotiate new market-opening agreements. "Both of these provisions are long, long overdue; I sincerely hope that Congress doesn’t kick it into next year," he added.

The fastest way to get a bill passed in the House is on the suspension calendar, which requires two-thirds support of members.

Brady questioned whether that bar could be met, but said it wouldn't be due to Republican opposition. "Well, the question there, is: Would there be Democrats for it? I think there would be overwhelming Republican support for those provisions."

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who is active on trade issues, said in an interview at the Capitol: "I doubt they'd go through suspension, so then I don't know what the moving vehicle would be. I think we had an opportunity to really like hammer out all these disagreements in USICA. The problem is one, the Speaker didn't prioritize it, and two, we passed something in the House that was so different from the Senate, so now we're like scrambling at the last second to conference something, and it's just kind of been a mess."

Are there other pieces of either the House or Senate trade title that could become law?

Neal said yes. "Yes, I do, there are a number of things I'd like to see play out at the end. And I think we've got time on it." But Neal declined to say which pieces of the House trade title could get bipartisan support. "I'm reluctant to volunteer anything until I see where we end up even with this legislation," he said.

When asked if he thinks Republicans would support eliminating China's eligibility for de minimis treatment, Gallagher said maybe. "I think there's, like, general support for the idea when you zoom up to the 50,000 foot [level] for maintaining [Section] 301 tariffs on China, and in general cracking down on what we perceive to be unfair trade practices while simultaneously relaxing the [Section] 232 disputes and drawing closer with our allies. You cannot sort of selectively decouple from China or get tough on China with trade while also picking fights with your allies. And we haven't figured out that balance yet. And, indeed, the Biden administration, I don't think, has grabbed some low-hanging fruit on trade. Like, what's the status of an FTA with Taiwan?" He also said the administration should be pursuing "a gold-standard post-Brexit trade agreement with the U.K. My sense is there's no progress on any of these fronts."