Orrin Hatch: “today the Senate will vote on two pieces of important trade legislation. Both of these bills have been in the works for…”

“today the Senate will vote on two pieces of important trade legislation. Both of these bills have been in the works for some time. They were among the four trade bills we reported out of the Senate Committee on Finance last month, and as a principal coauthor of both bills, I am very glad we found a way to get them to this point. The first bill we will be voting on is the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015. This bill will reauthorize and improve three of our trade preference programs: the generalized system of preferences, or GSP; the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA; and tariff preferences for Haiti. I want to take a few minutes to talk about each of these programs individually, starting with the GSP. The GSP promotes trade with developing nations by providing for nonreciprocal duty-free tariff treatment of certain products originating in those countries. The program helps beneficiary countries advance their economic development and encourages them to move toward more open economies and eliminate trade barriers to U.S. exports. The GSP does more than provide assistance in the developing world; it also assists hundreds of businesses here in the United States. Across our country, manufacturers and importers benefit by receiving inputs and raw materials at a lower cost. Approximately three-quarters of U.S. imports under GSP are raw materials--parts and components--or machinery and equipment used by U.S. companies to manufacture goods here at home.…”