Senate Passes Its Own Miscellaneous Trade Bill
According to a press release issued by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, on March 4, 2004, the Senate passed its version of the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2003.
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The press release states that this bill contains many trade provisions, primarily duty suspensions, duty reductions and duty extensions, for products that are not produced domestically. The press release also states that the bill includes a number of other trade provisions, including (partial list):
simplification of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP's) ability to process commercial importations;
retroactive reinstatement from August 6, 2002, of temporary reduced duty treatment for Andean originating handbags, luggage, flat goods, work gloves and leather wearing apparel under the Andean Trade Preference and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA);
GSP duty-free treatment for hand-knotted and hand-woven carpets, which is designed primarily to help the citizens of Afghanistan and Pakistan; and
authorization for the President to impose emergency import restrictions on the archaeological and ethnological materials of Iraq.
Next Step is House-Senate Conference to Resolve Differences
As the House has already passed its version of a miscellaneous trade bill, the next step is for a House-Senate conference to be held to resolve the differences between the two versions of the bill. Once agreement on a conference version is reached, the conference version would then be voted on by the House and Senate, and if passed by both bodies, sent to the President for enactment.
Senate Finance Committee Press release (dated 03/04/04) available at http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2004/prg030404.pdf