Importers Cry Foul on Senate Customs Reauthorization Bill
The Senate Customs Reauthorization legislation is only a “piecemeal” approach to strengthening U.S. trade remedy law, and the bill could hamper U.S. industry and CBP’s ability to monitor U.S. imports, said a group of importers in a recent letter to the House Ways and Means Committee. The American Apparel and Footwear Association, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America and the International Wood Products Association, among others, signed onto the letter.
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The Senate passed Customs Reauthorization on May 14 (see 1505140029). Customs Reauthorization still faces a difficult road ahead before any form of the legislation passes into law, trade experts say. The May 12 letter to Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., strongly praised the House version of the bill, HR-1907, and called on lawmakers to move forward with that bill. The House and the Senate bill, while largely similar, have some fundamental differences (see 1504240021).
Ryan's "concerns with some of the provisions in the Senate customs bill are well known, but I look forward to reconciling the differences between the House and Senate bills so that we can ensure strong enforcement of our trade laws," he said in a May 14 statement. Ryan said recently he expects a “lively” conference on the legislation, referring to the process of reconciling differences between the two sides of Capitol Hill (see 1504300071).
The Senate bill “raises several concerns because the legislation includes provisions that have not been adequately vetted or debated, are inconsistent with the United States’ international obligations, or would unnecessarily increase the bureaucracy of trade enforcement without an increase in effectiveness,” the groups said in the May 12 letter (here). “Proposals included in the Senate bill are not a balanced approach to enforcement.”
The letter points to the differences between the ENFORCE Act, which is part of the Senate bill, and the House’s PROTECT Act. The ENFORCE Act will “would burden [CBP] with a new and time-consuming administrative process, diverting CBP resources away from using recently enhanced tools to thwart evasion schemes and catch those responsible,” said the letter. “It will also divert resources from other important CBP functions, including education and training, trade facilitation, and border security. And it would deny law-abiding importers due process while exposing them to potentially unsustainable retroactive duty liability.” The Senate bill forces CBP to adhere to a strict timeline for following up on the evasion complaints. For years, lawmakers have failed to find a compromise between the two approaches (see 14050720).
The Leveling the Playing Field Act, which was merged into Senate Customs Reauthorization before the Finance Committee markup, would also violate global trade rules and “lower the standards for injury determinations,” said the groups. That bill, championed by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, primarily aims to strengthen the Commerce Department’s enforcement of antidumping enforcement (see 1504080013). Many trade experts say the enforcement differences are minor concerns. "I don’t think those two issues could bring down the bill in the House," said one lobbyist. Some say currency language and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill process reform could pose bigger challenges.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Council for International Business applauded the Senate's passage of Customs Reauthorization. The legislation supports CBP's drive to implement the International Trade Data System, and the bill "is critical for the implementation of the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement," said the organization in a statement. Reauthorization will also codify CBP's pilot programs, such as Trusted Trader, and strengthen U.S. mutual recognition agreements, said USCIB. "This new bill will facilitate trade by helping American businesses be more competitive within their global supply chains," USCIB President Peter Robinson said in the statement.