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Ways and Means plans busy trade agenda during 111th Congress

February 18, 2009
World Trade\Interactive

The House Ways and Means Committee has recently set forth a list of hearings and oversight-related activities that it and its subcommittees plan to conduct during the 111th Congress. With respect to trade and business issues, this list includes the following.

Full Committee

• discussion with the U.S. Trade Representative on congressional priorities and concerns related to international trade, including the president’s trade proposals for 2009 and 2010 and whether the USTR has adequate resources to carry out its mandate with respect to enforcing U.S. trade agreements

• current economic conditions, including long-term economic outlook, the state of the economy, prospects for recovery and long-term growth, and U.S. economic competitiveness

• simplifying and reforming the tax code

Trade Subcommittee

• free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea and Panama, with a focus on issues that need to be addressed in order for Congress to consider these FTAs (i.e., violence against workers and other issues that inhibit the exercise of basic internationally-recognized labor standards in Colombia and non-tariff market access barriers in the manufacturing and agricultural areas in Korea)

• implemented FTAs with Peru, Central America, the Dominican Republic, Oman, Bahrain, Singapore, Chile, Australia, Morocco, Jordan, Israel, Canada and Mexico

• uncompleted FTA negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, the Southern African Customs Union and Ecuador and proposed negotiations with the P-4 countries (Brunei, Chile, Singapore and New Zealand)

• major U.S. trade preference programs (Generalized System of Preferences, African Growth and Opportunity Act, Caribbean Basin Initiative, Andean Trade Preference Act, Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act), including an evaluation of the efficacy of these programs and options for long-term renewal and reform

• U.S. preference programs for Haiti (HOPE I and HOPE II) and evaluations of proposals to assist Haiti’s economic recovery

• U.S. goals in the Doha Round negotiations in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing, services and trade remedy laws, as well as an evaluation of reasons for the current impasse and how to break it

• the World Trade Organization dispute settlement system, including WTO decisions involving U.S. trade remedy laws

• U.S. enforcement of WTO rights and rights under FTAs and other agreements, including (a) proposals to strengthen U.S. trade remedy laws and improve U.S. tools as leverage to open foreign markets and other areas, (b) proposals to strengthen border enforcement related to counterfeit imports and import safety, and (c) administration of U.S. trade remedy laws by the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission and the USTR’s role in enforcement

• systemic problems in U.S.-China trade relations, including issues related to China’s continued violation of U.S. intellectual property rights and use of industrial subsidies and China’s alleged manipulation of its currency

• trade deficit with Europe as well as sectoral issues such as Airbus subsidies, discriminatory regulations in high-technology transfer, attempts at technology transfer, discriminatory barriers to U.S. farm exports, European Union practices in the Doha Round negotiations and EU practices concerning regional trade agreements

• U.S. trade relations with developing countries, the role of developing countries in the WTO and the world trading system, and the extent to which developing countries have benefited from the trading system over the past 20 years, why many of them have lost ground and what can be done in the area of trade and aid to reverse this trend

• options to improve education, on-the-job training, trade adjustment and portable health care/pensions

• the impact of mandatory proposals to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, including with respect to addressing carbon leakage, domestic and export competitiveness concerns of carbon-intensive industries, and issues related to consistency with international trade rules

• oversight hearing with U.S. Customs and Border Protection on priorities and concerns related to customs revenue functions and trade facilitation, including enforcement of U.S. customs laws and regulations and CBP’s capacity and resources to carry out its mandate

• prepare an omnibus miscellaneous tariff bill

• oversight hearing with the ITC concerning overall priorities and operations, including whether the ITC has adequate resources and technical expertise to carry out its mandate