Vote in House on AGOA, Haiti Programs Scheduled for Next Week
The African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Haiti Economic Lift Program Extension Act (Haiti HELP) are scheduled to get floor votes next week through the suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority for passage. Both trade preferences expired Oct. 1.
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There is no data on how much in duties has been owed since then on imports that formerly qualified, but a study from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated that tariffs would rise by 20 percentage points on African apparel without AGOA.
Imports of apparel from AGOA beneficiaries peaked in 2004 at $1.6 billion; according to the Congressional Research Service, AGOA apparel imports were at $1.2 billion in 2024.
Beth Hughes, vice president for trade and customs at the American Apparel and Footwear Association, said she's hearing the vote will be Monday evening or Tuesday. She'd love it to pass Monday night, as her group is helping to shepherd brands, African manufacturers and African officials to Capitol Hill Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. She said some of those attending the fly-in are coming from Tanzania and Kenya.
Hughes said she has heard that the Senate intends to attach AGOA and the Haiti bill to an appropriations bill to get it through that chamber. A package of the Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior and Energy and Water bills is expected to see votes in the Senate next week; the two chambers still have to grapple with a funding bill for Homeland Security, State-Foreign Operations and Financial Services and General Government.
All spending bills have to pass by Jan. 30, or Congress will have to do continuing appropriations for the departments that have not yet gotten votes.
"Maybe next week we’ll know a little bit more" about the Senate strategy, Hughes said in a telephone interview Jan. 8. A spokeswoman for the Senate Finance Committee didn't respond to questions about how the Senate might move the bills.
Overall, AGOA beneficiary exports to the U.S. were $29.4 billion, with minerals and chemicals at $10.2 billion, metals, machinery, and transportation equipment at $4.6 billion, and agriculture and food at $2.7 billion.
Hughes said the Interagency report on which countries will retain AGOA eligibility, regain eligibility, or leave the program was not released because AGOA expired. However, she said she hadn't heard that Ethiopia, another traditional apparel manufacturing hub, would be returning this year.
She said she isn't worried about the fact that the House bill has a three-year renewal for AGOA, even though the U.S. trade representative has said the administration only supports a one-year renewal. She said given how close House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., is to the White House, she doesn't think he would have moved the bill in his committee if it was opposed by the administration.
"I think three years really makes sense," she said, because that gives lawmakers enough time to make changes to AGOA if they wish to. Still, Hughes acknowledged that AAFA preferred an earlier bill from Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., that proposed a 16-year extension.