Outdoor Industry Association, the National Retail Federation and other trade groups urged members to help push several trade bills passed by the U.S. Senate last week through the U.S. House of Representatives.

The U.S. Senate on May 22 passed the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act, also known as Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). The House is expected to take up consideration of the legislation in early June after the Memorial Day recess.
 
TPA is an essential tool for President Obama, in consultation with Congress, to conclude negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Under TPA, Congress authorizes the president to engage in negotiations on international trade agreements, establishes negotiating objectives and congressional consultation procedures to guide those discussions. Any agreement negotiated under TPA will then 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.

“This is a decisive and important step in support of free and open trade,” said David French, Senior Vice President for Government Relations with the National Retail Federation. “Now that the Senate has acted, we urge the House to take up Trade Promotion Authority legislation as soon as they come back after Memorial Day. Advancing trade is in our economic and strategic interests and should be a top priority for Congress.”
 
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. 

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, and to ensure substantial benefits which include:

  • Eliminating U.S. tariffs on certain outdoor products not made in the America, and securing long tariff phase-outs on Made in the USA outdoor products to give domestic producers adequate time to adjust to post-TPP global trade.
  • Expanding access to global markets for U.S. manufactures,
  • Protecting innovation on products designed, distributed or manufactured in the United States

OIA has fought for the TPP 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.

“We have also impressed upon the administration that TPP must also reflect the outdoor industry’s values of social and environmental responsibility,” said Rich Harper, OIA policy advisor. 

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 under the terms of the agreement.

Additional outdoor industry priorities move to the House with TPA
The TPA vote followed the Senate approval of a trade preference package and a Customs and Border Protection enforcement bill a week earlier.  The Preference bill contains several provisions that will help lower import duties on outdoor apparel, footwear and equipment.

Those provisions include:

  • “Breakouts” within the Harmonized Tariff Schedule for certain woven performance apparel – a primary objective of the U.S. OUTDOOR Act (S. 952), OIA’s signature piece of trade legislation.
  • A reclassification of certain performance footwear in the HTS from “protective” to “athletic”.  The result will be to lower the import tariff from 37.5 percent to 20 percent, which will enable OIA members to use the savings for research and development, to foster innovation and provide greater value for your customers.
  • Making certain textile and leather backpacks, sports bags and other “travel goods” eligible for inclusion in the Generalized System of Preferences program (GSP)

The TPA legislation, trade preferences legislation and Customs legislation passed by the Senate over the last two weeks now moves to the House of Representatives where they faces an uncertain fate. Many House Democrats are wavering on the TPA legislation due to opposition from pockets of labor, environmental and anti-globalization groups.   
 
TPA, TPP, and the preferences within the trade preferences legislation have long been OIA priorities and were central issues during the 2015 OIA Capitol Summit held in April in Washington, D.C.
 
Several industry champions in Congress fought to include the outdoor industry’s interests in the recent trade legislation in the Senate, including (ADD LINKS) Senator Ayotte (R-NH), Senator Cantwell (D-WA), Senator Hatch (R-UT), Senator Wyden (D-OR), Senator Portman (R-OH) and Senator Roberts (R-KS).
 
As these issues move to the House, Haper asked that OIA members contact him at rharper@outdoorindustry.org with questions or to find out how they can help get the the bills passed by the House and to the president for enactment.