Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee offered ambitious plans in a sweeping competition bill released Tuesday night to expand the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, advance tougher requirements that countries must meet to receive trade breaks, and make it difficult for China and other nonmarket countries to ship goods to the U.S. through the mail duty-free.
Committee Democrats said a Senate competition bill fell short of their goals by omitting the Trade Adjustment Assistance program and by renewing the Generalized System of Preferences without requiring participating countries to meet more stringent labor and human rights standards. The Senate bill also would reauthorize the miscellaneous tariff program of time-limited tariff reductions and eliminations on industrial products and chemicals without excluding finished goods.
Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., said the Senate bill broke with requirements that legislation with tax implications originate with his committee, failed to meet workers’ needs, and was not tough enough on China’s trade practices and policies that put the U.S. at a disadvantage.
