White House Issues National Infrastructure Initiative
Elizabeth Owerbach
On February 12, 2018, President Trump announced the American Infrastructure Initiative. This is a legislative agenda with six core principles:
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$200 billion in Federal funds to spur at least $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investments with partners at the State, local, Tribal, and private level.
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New investments will be made in rural America, which has been left behind for too long.
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Decision making authority will be returned to State and local governments.
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Regulatory barriers that needlessly get in the way of infrastructure projects will be removed.
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Permitting for infrastructure projects will be streamlined and shortened.
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America’s workforce will be supported and strengthened.”
The Administration plans for $50 billion of the $200 billion to be “devoted to a new Rural Infrastructure Program to rebuild and modernize infrastructure in rural America.” Meanwhile, “$100 billion will create an Incentives Program to spur additional dedicated funds from States, localities, and the private sector.”
Infrastructure was a focus of President Trump’s State of the Union address. During his remarks, President Trump invited Congress to pass legislation containing “at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment we need.” The ambitious agenda reportedly faces an uphill battle in Congress.
President Trump Seeks Increased Funding For Key Trade Agencies
Betre Gizaw
The Trump Administration’s budget, released to Congress on February 12, 2018, includes funding proposals for key agencies involved in the full spectrum of international trade-related legal and policy matters, including antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings and other trade enforcement matters and negotiations of trade deals. The budget proposes an increase of $3 million in funding for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA), and allocates slightly more than $90 million in total for ITA’s Enforcement and Compliance unit. The budget proposal also would increase funding for the Office of the United States Trade Representative, requesting $63 million in funding in order fulfill the Administration’s objective of “pursuing all enforcement options at its disposal.”
GSP Renewal Update
Saud Aldawsari
Congress is currently in the process of reauthorizing the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. The program provides nonreciprocal, duty-free tariff treatment to over 5,000 products imported from designated beneficiary developing countries and least-developed developing countries. As of July 2017, 120 developing countries and territories were GSP beneficiaries. GSP was authorized by the Trade Act of 1974 to promote economic growth in the developing countries. The GSP periodically expires and must be renewed by Congress to remain in effect. The last GSP renewal, enacted on June 29, 2015, expired on December 31, 2017. Generally speaking, GSP renewal legislation includes language permitting retroactive preferential duty status for qualifying imports that occurred during the time period between expiration of the prior GSP program and the enactment of renewal legislation, so long as the import entries are flagged with the appropriate “GSP-Pending” special program tag. The current reauthorization bill (H.R. 4979) passed the House Ways and Means Committee on February 13, 2018. The legislation remains pending in the Senate and was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.
