NFTC Trade and Finance Committee with Senate Finance Staff
The Trade Committee will meet on Friday, August 1 at 9:00am with both Demetrios Marantis, Chief International Trade Counsel, Democratic Staff and Stephen Schaefer, Chief International Trade Counsel, Republican Staff of the Senate Finance Committee at the offices of Nortel,
With Congress scheduled to adjourn for summer recess on August 8, we’ll discuss the status of the Congressional trade agenda as of August 1, including:
– Trade Adjustment Assistance Legislation – a Senate markup is targeted for July 23, or if that doesn’t occur, hopefully on July 30. Current TAA authorization expires September 30, 2008.
– Future of the Pending FTA’s:
– Trade Preferences – both the General System of Preferences (GSP) and the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA) expire at the end of this year. The committee held hearings on trade preference programs on June 12, 2008 – http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing061208.htm
– Customs Reauthorization – the committee has held two hearings this year, on March 13, 2008 – http://www.senate.gov/~finance/sitepages/hearing031308.htm and June 24, 2008 – http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing062408.htm
– Trade Enforcement Initiatives
– The future of fast track trade negotiating authority, including reaction to the proposed legislation developed by the NFTC Trade Committee working group. The proposed legislation and summary may be found at: http://www.nftc.org/newsflash/newsflash.asp?Mode=View&articleid=1969&Category=All
If you will attend, please RSVP by Thursday, July 31 and note that we will meet at Nortel, NOT at NFTC. We must submit a list of attendees in advance to building security.
Thanks very much to Nortel for hosting us!
