This morning, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) verbalized what most GSP importers having been fearing for months. According to Inside US Trade ($), Hatch told reporters “I doubt that we’ll get it through before [GSP] expires.”
As we noted yesterday, Senator Coburn (R-OK) has blocked the unanimous consent (aka “UC”) request because of objections to the funding offsets. Any changes to the offsets, though, would require the bill to restart the UC process, further delaying Senate passage and jeopardizing consideration in the House. With Congress leaving DC on Friday and not coming back until September 9, there’s not much time to prevent a whole lot of new taxes.
