America Competes Act Amendments Could Make Changes to GSP, Lacey Act, ACE
Mandating a broad exclusion process for importers of goods subject to Section 301 tariffs, extending the period of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program renewal, reforming the GSP competitive needs limitations, a ban on importing sodium cyanide briquettes, and changes to the Lacey Act are all among hundreds of amendments to the America Competes Act that have been submitted to the Rules Committee, which has the responsibility for shaping the bill that will get a vote on the House floor (see 2201310033).
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Most of the hundreds of amendments will not make it into the House's China package. Even the text that passes the House will be different by the time a compromise is worked out with the Senate, which passed its own China package last year.
The Senate version already directs the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to reopen the exclusion process, but both it and the House amendment, proposed by Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., give her wiggle room to explain why she cannot.
The amendment extending the House GSP renewal date from the end of 2024 to the first day of 2027 also matches the Senate's trade chapter.
Murphy is the sponsor of the competitive needs limitation amendment, which is based on a bill she introduced last year with Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind. (see 2112100058). That same amendment also contains non-binding language that says the administration should consider if a partial removal or a removal of a country from eligibility would advance the change in policy the administration is seeking, and that says the administration should consider if it would be feasible to allow certain companies to continue to import a good under the benefit program from a beneficiary country if the GSP no longer covered that export.
Several members of Congress proposed changes to the Lacey Act. House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., led a bipartisan amendment that would ban trade in captive minks, dead or alive. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., proposed a ban on imports or exports of any live wild mammal, bird, reptile or amphibian, even if it was born in captivity, with the exception of ruminants, such as bison, if the animal is meant for human consumption.
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., introduced an amendment that would put palm oil and goods made with palm oil under the Lacey Act unless that palm oil is certified to be sustainable. Those certifications would need to consider human rights of workers and plantation neighbors, preventing deforestation or peatlands degradation, and cultivation that doesn't increase greenhouse gas emissions as much as past cultivation did.
A bipartisan amendment from Murphy and Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., was introduced to extend the customs waters boundary from 12 to 24 nautical miles, to give CBP's air and marine operations the ability to enforce U.S. customs laws, stop human traffickers and interdict drugs further from ports of entry. Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., introduced an amendment that would temporarily ban "large-scale" importation of sodium cyanide briquettes unless they are headed for Alaska, or transported in portable tanks or railcars certified for transporting the chemical briquettes.
Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., the new ranking member on the trade subcommittee, submitted an amendment that would renew the Trade Adjustment Assistance program in concert with renewing trade promotion authority.
Rep. Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, submitted an amendment that would appropriate $8.5 million to CBP to develop and implement ACE in the Virgin Islands. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., submitted two trade-related amendments. One would rescind the permanent normal trade relations with China, and the other would specify that none of the money in the Green Climate fund could be used to buy goods reasonably believed to be made with forced labor. However, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which creates a presumption that goods with a connection to Xinjiang are made with forced labor, would seem to cover that, given that there is already a withhold release order for Xinjiang-connection in solar panels.