Trade Enforcement Deal
The conference agreement on HR 644, the Trade Enforcement Act, includes numerous provisions to facilitate trade and improve U.S. trade enforcement, including by formally establishing the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency in statute and enhancing its authority, including by authorizing an automated system for the agency to process imports and exports.
It strengthens enforcement of U.S. trade agreements and U.S. intellectual property rights, including by creating in the U.S. Treasury a Trade Enforcement Trust Fund to finance U.S. Trade Representative activities to enforce international trade agreements and statutorily establishing the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center within ICE to coordinate federal efforts to prevent intellectual property violations. It also makes permanent the ban on state and local taxation of Internet access and phases out the taxes imposed in seven states where they were grandfathered in, and it amends the Trade Promotion Authority law enacted earlier this year to add more negotiating objectives for future trade agreements — including that future agreements not require changes to U.S. immigration laws or establish U.S. obligations with respect to climate change.