On June 5, Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced the Protecting Orderly and Responsible Transit of Shipments (PORTS) Act. The FASA-supported legislation would amend the Taft-Hartley law to allow state governors to invoke the Taft-Hartley process, and would add labor slowdowns as a trigger for Taft-Hartley. Taft-Hartley requires labor and management to resume full operations at a port while negotiations continue under binding arbitration.
Category Archives: Washington Newsline
The Senate Commerce Committee, on June 25, voted to approve the FASA-supported Port Transparency Act (S. 1298). The legislation would require periodic reporting on port performance, which will shine light on port processes. Committee members defeated an amendment to strip reporting requirements on labor negotiations from the bill. The Senate may consider the Port Transparency Act as part of the highway funding bill that Congress will debate in July.
President Barack Obama on June 29, signed the FASA-supported Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation into law. The legislation gives the president authority to complete negotiations on the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) Free Trade Agreements.
President Barack Obama on June 29, signed the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 (H.R. 1295) into law. The trade preferences bill includes the FASA-supported GSP Update Act, which makes fashion accessories eligible for duty benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. Now that fashion accessories are eligible for GSP benefits, FASA will join with others to petition the U.S. government to have fashion accessories formally added to the GSP program. The process could take many months. However, once the government approves the petitions, fashion accessories from developing countries (except for China and Vietnam) can start entering the United States duty-free.
