After weeks of debate, the United States Senate voted Wednesday to give President Obama Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), a critical part of his trade agenda that enjoys broad support in the sporting goods, apparel and footwear industry. The president is expected to sign the legislation into law this week.

The House of Representatives approved TPA last week after the process initially stalled earlier this month.
 
TPA is an essential tool for the president, in consultation with Congress, to conclude negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12 nation trade agreement that has been supported by Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) , the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA), the Sports and Fitness Industries Association (SFIA) and other trade groups.  

“We’re pleased the House passed TPA today and thank them for acting quickly to put this legislation on a path for approval by the President,” AAFA’s President and CEO Juanita D. Duggan said Wednesday. “Today’s vote is a big step forward and we urge the Senate to follow suit, act quickly and pass the House-approved TPA bill.”
 
Under TPA, Congress authorizes the president to engage in negotiations on international trade agreements, establish negotiating objectives and establish appropriate consultation and oversight procedures to guide those discussions. Any agreement negotiated under TPA will be sent to Congress under expedited procedures for a “yes” or “no” vote without the possibility of amending the agreements.

TPA was last passed in 2002 and expired in 2007, though the recent completion of the Colombian, Korean and Panamanian free trade agreements were approved by Congress under TPA in 2011.
 
Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) supports TPA because it maximizes the negotiating leverage of the administration to secure the best possible benefits for U.S. companies and workers in trade agreements like the TPP.

Passage of TPA was a major issue during last April's OIA Capitol Summit in Washington, D.C. A record number of attendees encouraged Congress to pass TPA, along with other industry legislative priorities.
 
Outdoor Industry Benefits from TPA and TPP

OIA has been engaged as a stakeholder in the TPP negotiations from day one, representing the interests of the outdoor industry to ensure substantial benefits which include:
 

  • Eliminating U.S. tariffs on certain outdoor products not made in the United States, while securing long tariff phase-outs and strict trade rules on outdoor products that are made in the USA. These protections are necessary to give domestic producers adequate time to adjust to post-TPP global trade.
  • Expanding access to global markets for U.S. manufacturers
  • Protecting innovation on products designed, distributed or manufactured in the United States.

 
OIA has also fought for the agreement to include provisions that will help lower product costs on performance apparel, footwear and equipment, and fuel innovation here in the United States, while creating more American jobs and encouraging more people to get outdoors.
 
From the beginning, OIA has also stressed to the administration that the TPP must also include the strongest labor and environmental protections possible to reflect our industry’s values.

Push continues to renew GSP, MTB and other expired trade programs
AAFA and SFIA lobbyists urged Congress to now act on renewing a series of expired and expiring trade measures included in the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015, passed by the House.

These measures include extension of the Haiti HELP/HOPE program, a ten-year renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and retroactive renewal and update of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program.

The GSP/trade preferences bill would extend the program, which provides duty-free treatment for 140 beneficiary developing countries for nearly all dutiable categories of sporting goods equipment, until December 31, 2017. The extension would be retroactive to the program’s July 31, 2013 expiration. The bill would also extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act and two Haiti-specific preferential programs. In addition, the bill includes a provision that would allow the filing of petitions requesting that travel goods (including such items as gym bags) of textiles or leather be added to GSP eligibility, and provisions reclassifying water-resistant performance footwear and recreational performance outerwear, according to an extensive SFIA trade update published Wednesday.

SFIA is also watching a customs reauthorization/trade enforcement bill that addresses various aspects of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s trade facilitation and trade enforcement responsibilities. Of particular interest to SFIA members, the Senate-passed version of the bill includes a provision that would establish a revised MTB process that would originate with the filing of duty suspension requests with the U.S. International Trade Commission. 

TPA Labor and Environmental Standards
 
As leaders in the field of sustainable business practices, outdoor companies also have an interest in TPA legislation that contains tough negotiating objectives on labor and the environment.

OIA has long fought for the inclusion of those protections. The TPA legislation directs the administration to require our trading partners adopt the highest international labor and environment standards and to ensure that those provisions are fully enforceable.
 
You can learn more about OIA’s position on TPP in our commentary here.
 
The vote on TPA followed a serious debate on U.S. trade policy and President Obama’s trade agenda. The president and a majority of Congress were ultimately able to overcome opposition to TPA, including critics from some environmental groups, anti-globalization groups and some in the outdoor industry, including Patagonia.
 
With today's passage of TPA, the President and his negotiators will seek to conclude TPP negotiations and then send legislation that will implement TPP to Congress for a vote late this year or early next.