Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 1724 - Termination of Application of Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974 to Czechoslovakia and Hungary

(House)
(Gibbons (D) Florida and 25 others)

The Administration supports enactment of H.R. 1724, as passed by the Senate. The bill would grant the President the authority to stop applying Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974 to Czechoslovakia or Hungary, thereby allowing them to receive most-favored-nation (MFN) status on a permanent basis. In addition, H.R. 1724 would amend P.L. 102-164, the "Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 1991", to provide increased benefits to unemployed workers.

The Administration has no objection to the House Ways and Means Committee amendment to be offered to H.R. 1724. The Committee amendment would: (1) provide MFN status for the Baltic States; (2) repeal a prohibition on importation of gold coins from the Soviet Union; (3) provide trade benefits to certain Andean countries; and (4) authorize certain sanctions related to the "Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act."

Scoring for the Purpose of Pay-As-You-Go

The net cost of the unemployment compensation provisions in H.R. 1724 is $95 million in FY 1992. By agreement among the Administration and the bipartisan leadership in both Houses, the surplus FY 1992 revenues in the "Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 1991" are being used to offset the cost of the unemployment compensation provisions in H.R. 1724.

There are pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) costs associated with the trade provisions in the proposed Committee amendment to this bill. Based on legislation enacted to date, OMB would officially estimate in the end-of-session Sequestration Report that there would be a positive PAYGO balance sufficient to offset what OMB estimates to be the PAYGO cost of these trade provisions. Therefore, if these trade provisions are enacted promptly, while the PAYGO balance is positive, their enactment would not trigger a sequester under the Budget Enforcement Act.