House Ways and Means Member Expects TAA to Stay Linked to GSP, MTB

A Republican Ways and Means Committee member said renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill would require his committee and the Senate Finance Committee to come to an agreement on what they can support before the House moves a bill.

"Why produce a work product here," without talking to Democrats in the Senate first, Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., asked.

Schweikert said he thinks Democrats still will want to link GSP and MTB to Trade Adjustment Assistance. A one-year renewal of TAA did get into the year-end spending package. The linkage is what House Republicans said last year was preventing GSP and MTB renewal.

Schweikert said he thinks a longer-term renewal of TAA would be appropriate, but said he would not support it unless the administration also is open to a trade promotion authority bill. So he said the negotiations for GSP and MTB will need to include someone from the White House, as well.

"Whether we like it or not, we're going to need our Democratic colleagues to do it with us," he said in a Capitol interview. He said "it's only fair" that TAA travels with TPA, and pointed to stalled free trade negotiations with Kenya as one reason why. "Because some of this stuff is lingering for years."

For businesses, Schweikert said, getting a renewal of the MTB and GSP is more important than the conditions in those renewals.

"I will get some folks who will come to my office saying they heard a rumor, they think this or that. And it's hard doing business planning on rumors."