Coalition for a Prosperous America Dislikes MTB, GSP Renewal Bill

The Coalition for a Prosperous America says that the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill lead to offshoring and a low-wage workforce in the U.S., and that the MTB is "abused by importers who lobby against policies to boost domestic production, and it conflicts with the national imperative to re-shore the industries and jobs we have lost."

The coalition sent a letter May 24 to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., with numerous suggestions of how to change MTB and GSP, even though it would prefer there be no trade preferences at all. The group says that almost 20% of the MTB petitions covered products with domestic production. It also says no finished goods should be in the program, since it is designed to help manufacturers. "Retailers with no domestic manufacturing are making exponentially greater use of the MTB, and the number of petitions is skyrocketing from the low hundreds to the thousands," the coalition wrote.

On GSP, the coalition says it should be limited to least-developed countries, that countries that are reported to have problems with child labor or forced labor should automatically be barred, and that the rule of origin for goods should be as high as in USMCA, not 35%.

The coalition also dislikes the bill's restrictions on an executive decision to remove a country from the list.