SENATE PASSES TRADE BILL
The Senate on Thursday passed legislation calling for carriers to provide advance electronic transmission of cargo manifest information prior to clearance.
Additionally, the Trade Act of 2002 (HR 3009), approved 64-34, allows President Bush authority to negotiate international trade agreements without'congressional amendments.
The legislation now goes to Bush for his signature.
Some in industry hail the act’s passage as a victory for the U.S. Customs Service’s computer-generated trade monitoring system, the Automated Commercial Environment.
Language in Section 1142 of the act calls for land, air and vessel carriers to “provide by electronic transmission cargo manifest information in advance of such entry or clearance in such manner, time, and form as prescribed.”
In what may be another victory for ACE’s evolution, the trade bill calls for $308 million in funding for fiscal years 2003 and 2004 toward “development, establishment and implementation of ACE.”
Counsel for an industry association supported the Senate’s move, noting that language in the act on manifest data did not set a time deadline for its implementation.
“I think Congress did the right thing, rather than trying to pin either the Customs or the trade down on what was required,” said Harvey Isaacs, general counsel for the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America. “In the calm of the day, Customs can start developing the imposed regulations.”
Jon H. Kent, legislative representative for NCBFAA, saw the act’s passage calling for financing ACE development as purely symbolic and within the realm of what has been negotiated for ACE spending. “Nobody is going to argue with that amount.”
The act gives more enforcement authority to Customs. Customs officers may, subject to the provision of this section, stop and search at the border, without a search warrant” inbound and outbound international mail that is transported by the U.S. Postal Service.
The bill also grants the president trade promotion authority to negotiate international trade agreements subject only to “yes” or “no” votes in Congress, thereby eliminating congressional amendments to such agreements. Bush called the resurrection of TPA, which lapsed in 1994, “a major victory.”
Two more items falling under the Trade Act of 2002 are the Andean Trade Preferences Act, which provides low tariffs for some products from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, and language to renew the Generalized System of Preferences. GSP allows U.S. companies to import products from selected developing countries duty-free. GSP, which had been expired since last September, is renewed until the end of 2006.
“This day has been a long time coming,” said Laura Baughman, executive director for the Coalition for GSP. “GSP has been expired since last September, and since then companies have been scrambling to find the money to pay import duties.”