[CTC] Lawmakers announce deal on customs bill

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Lawmakers announce deal on customs bill
By Doug Palmer, POLITICO
12/09/2015 04:02 PM EDT

Congressional negotiators have reached a bipartisan deal on legislation  <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7a2b3997e87044e3447e6f93bf2f99f23dca6c5bd5ca5a02f5a0558bc45a6e91>to reauthorize and modernize the Customs and Border Protection service and crack down on companies that evade anti-dumping and countervailing duties, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady announced today. 

"Expanding trade is key to our pro-growth agenda for America," Brady said in a statement on the deal. "Our bipartisan agreement turns the page on impractical, outdated customs and border policies that have hurt American workers and job creators for decades."

Hatch said he hoped Congress would approve the final package before it adjourns for the year. The bill includes controversial House provisions that would bar the White House from adding obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to trade agreements or making changes to U.S. immigration laws or expanding visa access in trade pacts, according to asummary <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7a2b3997e87044e38e3152f2b96b04ade86e19c437f5e2bb492030f6f1233801> of the legislation from the Ways and Means and Finance panels. 

"This enforcement package is about jobs," said Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on Finance. "Too often, our laws and enforcement policies have proven too slow or too weak to stop the trade cheats before jobs are lost.

As expected, the bill does not include a currency provision in the Senate version that would require the Commerce Department to treat currency manipulation as an export subsidy under U.S. countervailing duty law.

The bill places a heavy focus on both enforcement and easing the movement of goods across the U.S. border.

"Strong enforcement is a key element in our trade arsenal, and thanks to this legislation, the administration will have a number of new tools to hold America's trading partners accountable," Hatch said. "Even more, this measure promotes legitimate trade facilitation and works to preserve one of America's most important economic assets: intellectual property, helping to prevent counterfeit and illicit goods from entering our nation."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20151209/2ac2e185/attachment-0001.htm>