TradePost Archives > February 19, 2009 > this article

Legislative update: Food safety looms as MTB, trade enforcement wait in the wings

February 17, 2009
World Trade\Interactive

Congress recently completed action on its top priority, an economic stimulus bill, which includes several trade-related provisions. Although most observers expect lawmakers to now turn their attention to unrelated issues, food safety, trade enforcement and a miscellaneous trade bill are all expected to see action later this year.

(Note that the text of the individual bills mentioned below can be found on the Library of Congress’ THOMAS Web site.)

Economic Stimulus. Both the House and Senate approved late last week a final economic stimulus bill that includes several trade- and transportation-related provisions, including an expanded Trade Adjustment Assistance program, “buy American” requirements for some steel and textiles, and funding for land border port of entry construction and the procurement of non-intrusive cargo container inspection technology at sea ports of entry. The full text of the stimulus bill is available here.

Food Safety. With the peanut product scare continuing to make headlines, food safety is expected to be high on the congressional agenda this year. However, some observers say Congress is likely to take up other issues first, such as health care reform.

In the House, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., introduced Jan. 28 a sweeping overhaul bill that, among other things, would require all food, drug, medical device and cosmetics facilities exporting such goods to the U.S. to register with the Food and Drug Administration and pay an annual registration fee, establish schedules for FDA inspections of foreign facilities, and create a fast-track import process for food meeting security standards.

In the Senate, Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Bob Casey, D-Pa., introduced Feb. 12 a bill that includes the following provisions.

• authorizes additional funding for the FDA, Department of Agriculture and Department of Homeland Security to increase staff and improve food safety efforts

• requires private laboratories conducting tests on FDA-regulated products on behalf of importers to apply for and be certified by the FDA and authorizes the FDA to collect user fees to cover certification costs

• imposes civil penalties for laboratories and/or importers who knowingly falsify or conspire to falsify laboratory sampling results

• establishes civil penalties for importers who circumvent the USDA import reinspection system

• requires USDA and FDA to provide public notice of identified smuggled products in commerce

A number of related bills (e.g., H.R. 814, H.R. 815, H.R. 841, H.R. 875, H.R. 999 and S. 384) have been introduced as well.

MTB. With lawmakers focusing on ways to help stimulate the economy, a miscellaneous trade bill that extends duty reductions and suspensions on imports of key manufacturing and production inputs is likely to come up before the end of the year, when current benefits are slated to expire. Amendments to customs laws and modifications to unilateral trade preference programs may also be included. For information on how to get involved with the MTB process please contact Nicole Bivens Collinson, Jennifer Mulveny or Mark Haney in our Washington, D.C., office at (202) 216-9307.

Trade Enforcement. H.R. 496 includes a wide range of trade enforcement provisions, but as of yet no committee hearing or markup has been scheduled.

In the Senate, Sen. Olympia Snowe, D-Maine, introduced Feb. 2 a bill designed to make it easier to bring Section 301 cases against foreign country violations of U.S. trade rights.

Consumer Product Safety. Government and industry representatives have raised concerns about the implementation and scope of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act that Congress passed in 2008. In response, a handful of bills have been introduced to provide regulatory relief to small businesses, including H.R. 968, S. 374 and S. 389. It is unclear at this point what the prospects for congressional consideration of these bills might be.

Other. Other trade-related bills that have been introduced recently include the following.

• H.R. 1080 – to strengthen enforcement mechanisms to stop illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
• H.R. 1082 – to prohibit the importation of foreign-made U.S. flags
• H.R. 1097 - to provide tax relief for obtaining transportation worker identification credentials
• H.R. 1103 – to modify the prohibition on recognition by U.S. courts of certain rights relating to certain marks, trade names or commercial names
• H.R. 961 – to suspend temporarily the duty on phosphoric acid, lanthanum salt, cerium terbium-doped
• H.R. 962 – to suspend temporarily the duty on lutetium oxide
• H.R. 876 – to authorize the extension of nondiscriminatory treatment (normal trade relations treatment) to the products of Kazakhstan