[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 102 (Wednesday, June 24, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S4590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRADE PREFERENCES EXTENSION ACT OF 2015

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, today I rise to commend my colleagues on 
passage of the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015. This 
legislation provides timely extension of the African Growth and 
Opportunity Act, or AGOA, Program, and preferential treatment for 
products from Haiti. And, this legislation finally reauthorizes the 
Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP, Program which has languished 
since July of 2013. I am very pleased we have been successful in this 
effort.
  Trade preference programs are vitally important to the economies of 
the beneficiary countries, supporting economic and social development. 
And, these programs support production here in the U.S. as many of the 
goods eligible under preference programs are raw materials and inputs 
that fuel American manufacturing. These programs build a trading 
relationship that is the first stepping stone towards developing a 
full, bilateral trading relationship that will further grow and support 
the U.S. economy. Particularly for some of our trading partners 
benefiting under the AGOA Program, we look forward to our trading 
relationship developing to the next phase, full bilateral trade 
agreements, during this authorization of the program.
  But none of this would have been possible without the dedicated work 
of many people. I would like to recognize the staff of the Senate 
Finance Committee. I would like to recognize Senator Wyden and his 
staff, especially Joshua Sheinkman, Jayme White, Elissa Alben, Greta 
Peisch, and Anderson Heiman. Our work was supported by the outstanding 
efforts of the International Trade Commission and the Office of the 
United States Trade Representative. I would like to particularly thank 
Florie Liser, Constance Hamilton, Behnaz Kibria, Bill Jackson, and Ben 
Kostrzewa from the Office of the USTR.
  I would like to especially thank my staff for all their dedicated 
work on this legislation. Our international trade staff has worked 
tirelessly on this legislation and I thank them for their efforts: 
Everett Eissenstat, Shane Warren, and Rebecca Eubank. We have had the 
excellent support of detailees from the U.S. Patent and Trademark 
Office, Kevin Rosenbaum, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Andrew 
Rollo, as well as Sahra Park Su and Kenneth Schmidt. I would like to 
thank my senior staff: Chris Campbell, Mark Prater, Jay Khosla, Jeff 
Wrase, and Bryan Hickman.
  We can all be proud of the broad support this bill has received in 
both Houses of Congress. This legislation demonstrates that trade is a 
bipartisan issue. I look forward to President Obama signing this 
legislation into law as soon as possible.

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