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House panel targets U.S. Byrd law for repeal

Posted on: Monday, 24 October 2005, 18:54 CDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee will vote this week on legislation repealing a 5-year-old trade law that has paid U.S. companies more than $1 billion and been declared illegal by the World Trade Organization, congressional aides said on Monday.

The law distributes duties the U.S. government collects on imports it says are subsidized or unfairly priced to competing companies within the United States. That money used to go into the general treasury before the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act was passed in 2000.

Republican leaders on the House Ways and Means Committee have proposed repealing the measure to save $3.5 billion over five years. The provision also is known as the Byrd amendment after one of its chief sponsors, Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat.

Last month, the Government Accountability Office released a report showing that nearly $500 million in payments under the dumping and subsidy act went to just five companies and two-thirds of total payments went to only three industries: bearings, candles and steel.

Congress passed the Byrd amendment in 2000 as part of an agricultural appropriations bill. Opponents complained it was snuck into the legislation without review by the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, which have jurisdiction over taxes and trade.

Eleven U.S. trading partners challenged the provision at the WTO. Canada, the European Union, Japan and Mexico have imposed about $115 million in retaliation on U.S. exports after the United States failed to a meet a December 2003 WTO deadline for repealing the measure.

The Bush administration has proposed repealing the program, which remains popular with many lawmakers.

Byrd and other program supporters have repeatedly urged the White House to negotiate the right for the United States to keep the program as part of world trade talks.

The House Ways and Means Committee will vote on Wednesday on repealing the act as part of a package of spending cuts being considered by the panel.

The Republican-controlled Congress voted earlier this year to cut mandatory spending by $35 billion over five years and conservatives concerned about the mounting cost of hurricane recovery efforts want to raise the total to $50 billion.

House conservatives also want across-board spending cuts on domestic programs along with some recisions for some already appropriated funds. Democrats opposed the $35 billion in cuts approved in the spring and are expected to resist any additional cuts.

Source: REUTERS

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