NAFTA for Africa Passes House Committee; Fight Moves to House Floor Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - Mike Dolan June 12, 1999 The House Ways and Means Committee passed the NAFTA for Africa (HR-434) and CBI yesterday afternoon. The stage is set for a show-down on the floor of the House -- which could be scheduled for as early as next week. The vote will be very close. We can win if and only if activists and organizers with the Fair Trade coalitions of the several states take ownership of this campaign and take on the corporate lobby like we did last year on "Fast Track" (which is referenced below). Talking Points and Action Alerts at www.tradewatch.org Please contact your congressional delegation early and often, starting with the Members who voted against similar legislation last year and locking them down. Also, all the co-sponsors of HOPE for Africa (HR-772) need to commit to oppose HR-434 if and when it gets to the floor. The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. Now the clips: *************************** Daily Report for Executives Friday, June 11, 1999 Ways and Means Approves Sub-Saharan Trade Measure The House Ways and Means Committee June 10 cleared by voice vote a bill (H.R. 434) that would promote greater trade and investment ties with countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The bill approved by the committee was an amendment in the nature of a substitute containing a revenue provision to offset the loss of tariff revenue under pay-as-you-go budget rules. The offset provisions limit the use of nonaccrual experience method of accounting and deny charitable contribution deductions for transfers in connection with charitable split-dollar insurance arrangements. A bill containing similar benefits for Africa was passed by the House last year by a 233-186 margin but died in the Senate after it was packaged with a bill in the Senate Finance Committee that would have renewed the Clinton administration's fast-track trade negotiating authority. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky told the panel that H.R. 434 presented a historic opportunity for a stronger relationship with sub-Saharan Africa. Committee Chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas) said that the bill would fill a major gap in U.S. trade policy but that its full benefits could not be realized without fast-track trade negotiating authority, which shields trade agreements from congressional amendments. Consistent with criteria in the bill, the measure would require the president to identify countries in sub-Saharan Africa that are making or have made progress toward a market-based economy. The legislation would extend duty-free benefits for eligible products under the Generalized System of Preferences to eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa until June 30, 2009. Under the bill, the president would also be able to grant duty-free treatment to products currently excluded from GSP treatment from eligible countries. The bill would require the United States to eliminate the existing quotas on textile and apparel exports from Kenya and Mauritius within 30 days of those countries adopting safeguards against transshipment and use of counterfeit documents. It also would extend the current policy of not imposing quotas on textile and apparel exports to the United States from other sub-Saharan African countries. Any exporter involved in transshipment through Africa would be denied the bill's benefits for two years. The bill would direct the president to develop a plan to establish a U.S.-Sub-Saharan Africa Free Trade Area, and it would set up a U.S.-Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation forum to facilitate annual bilateral discussions on trade and investment. Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), a strong critic of the bill, is pushing alternative legislation (H.R. 772). Meanwhile, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), in a June 10 statement, said that he supports Africa trade legislation but considers H.R. 434 significantly flawed. He expressed concern with the bill's "emphasis ... on supporting multinational corporate interests at the expense of the kind of broad-based economic and political development that will benefit both African and American interests in the long-run." Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch Director Lori Wallach, in a June 10 statement, said that the Ways and Means Committee is the only place where the Africa trade bill has majority support at this time. She said that Jackson's bill has dramatically altered the political landscape. Copyright * 1999 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C. ******************** TRADE Africa, Caribbean Trade Bills OK'd By Ways And Means The House Ways and Means Committee signed off on bills to expand trade with African and Caribbean nations Thursday as the Senate Finance Committee prepared to take up four trade bills next week. But the Caribbean Basin Initiative, which would extend many of the trade enhancements in the North American Free Trade Agreement to Caribbean and Central American countries, faces an uncertain fate. The version the Finance Committee will take up next week differs in important ways on textile and apparel provisions. House GOP leaders are said to be disinclined to force their members to cast a potentially tough vote on a bill over which there could be an impasse. Although the bill passed the Ways and Means panel on a voice vote, there was opposition. Trade Subcommittee ranking member Sander Levin, D-Mich., lamented that the bill still lacks labor standards and comes up short in striking a balance on textile and apparel content provisions. Trade Representative Barshefsky advised the committee that the Clinton administration would prefer a few changes in the bill's textile and labor provisions if it goes to conference. Originally, the CBI measure would have applied for five years but it was shortened to two years due to a scarcity of offsets, according to Chairman Archer. The bill would go into effect in July 2000 and expire in August 2002. It would be paid for by limiting how much employers can write off on their tax return for contributing to welfare benefit funds. The Senate Finance Committee used that same offset last month for an education tax measure. The Africa trade measure is identical to the one approved by the House last year and passed the committee on a voice vote, despite opposition from a number of labor groups in the United States and in Africa. The Finance Committee has taken a different approach on that bill as well. The Senate bill would be paid for by limiting the use of the non-accrual method of accounting in some circumstances and cracking down on the use of so-called split dollar life insurance policies for charitable tax deductions. These items also were used in the Finance Committee's education bill. Archer said he did not know when the legislation would go to the floor but would not rule out action as early as next week. In addition to the CBI, the Finance Committee will take up separate bills on trade adjustment assistance, the generalized system of preferences, which knocks away duties for many products from developing countries, and a measure to make it easier for the steel industry to obtain relief from imports. Another measure would reauthorize and reform certain operations of the U.S. Customs Service. Finance Chairman Roth said bills on African trade as well as trade negotiating authority could be taken up later in the year. -- By Stephen Norton Mike Dolan, Field Director Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch ph 202.546.4996 x322 fx 202.547.7392 ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytaf-06.13.99-02:59:41-28020