Neal Says GSP, MTB Will Have to Be Part of Larger Trade Bill

Rep. Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said "there could be" movement on the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, now expired more than two years, "but I think it has to be part of a broader trade agreement."

Neal spoke during a hallway interview at the Capitol March 24.

He didn't say what other legislation he would like to see in that broader bill. In the previous Congress, a pair of senators from each party had argued for Trade Adjustment Assistance renewal, GSP, MTB, and a limited Trade Promotion Authority that could cover a deal with Taiwan, the U.K., Kenya or Ecuador (see 2212050066).

"I don't know about TPA, that is a little bit harder in our caucus for sure. I think there's interest in Kenya, there's interest in Taiwan, there's interest in Japan...," Neal said.

But he said that members are wary that if they sign off on TPA, it becomes a blanket authorization for FTAs, and Congress would lose leverage. "Once TPA's in place, a lot of the accountability you seek diminishes, and I think that's why members have been reluctant to embrace TPA," he said, though he noted that Democrats were able to get significant changes made to the NAFTA rewrite after it was presented as done by the previous administration.

He added: "The trade agenda, we don't want to be stalled, we want to have an assertive role in the world."

Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., declined to answer any questions from International Trade Today. He has made no public comments on GSP or MTB, though the chairman of the trade subcommittee, Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., has said he wants GSP and MTB to move quickly, and does not support holding off until a larger trade bill can come together (see 2302070058).