“Most pro-worker trade legislation introduced in Congress in decades.”
WASHINGTON — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today applauded the trade title of House Democrats’ China competition bill, the America COMPETES Act of 2022, which contained a number of provisions that CPA supports and encouraged the House to include. The trade title of House Democrats’ China competition bill represents a serious improvement over the trade title in the Senate-passed China competition bill, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S. 1260), which CPA urged members of the House Ways and Means Committee to reject.
Notably, House Democrats’ China Competition bill includes legislation strongly supported by CPA that was introduced by U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee. The bill will narrow an import loophole, known as de minimis, that is used by non-market economies and counterfeiters to ship hundreds of millions of packages valued under $800 into the United States without inspection, information disclosure, or duty payment. Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA, recently penned an op-ed highlighting
“For decades, Congress has routinely renewed trade preference programs that have directly contributed to the offshoring of tens of millions of American jobs and U.S. domestic manufacturing capacity,” CPA Chair Zach Mottl said. “Chairman Neal and Chairman Blumenauer deserve tremendous credit for championing the trade title of House Democrats’ China competition bill. This trade title not only represents a monumental shift towards a more pro-worker U.S. trade policy, but it also fixes serious deficiencies in the passed Senate legislation that would be a huge giveaway for Chinese importers.”
The America COMPETES Act of 2022 also includes additional legislation introduced by Chairman Blumenauer, which CPA strongly supports, that would modernize and reauthorize the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) programs, the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB), and the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016 (AMCA). Importantly, these bills address significant shortcomings in the Senate-passed USICA, which failed to fix the GSP eligibility criteria and transparency provisions, and address loopholes in the MTB process that benefit China. Additionally, the House legislation aims to support domestic manufacturers and limit benefits for imports from China by excluding finished products from future MTB cycles.
“The trade title of House Democrats’ China competition is the most pro-worker trade legislation introduced in Congress in decades,” said Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA. “In particular, CPA strongly supports the reforms to the GSP and MTB programs, which have been part of the overall United States policy of import facilitation which helps drive out domestic production. Additionally, we applaud the inclusion of Chairman Blumenauer’s bill to narrow the de minimis loophole and prevent the current rampant abuse of this nearly century-old provision of U.S. trade law by China and companies like Amazon. By prohibiting goods from countries that are recognized as high risk counterfeiters as well as non-market economies from using de minimis, Chairman Blumenauer’s Import Security and Fairness Act is exactly the kind of solution needed to reverse decades of harm to American innovators, workers and businesses from rampant trade lawlessness.”
The trade title of House Democrats’ America COMPETES Act of 2022 includes provisions to:
- Reauthorize and modernize TAA programs;
- Extend and reform the GSP and MTB legislation;
- Strengthen U.S. international trade laws to stop unfairly-traded goods from exploiting the de minimis import threshold;
- Empower the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to take strategic steps to improve supply chain resiliency;
- Strengthen U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws to protect American workers and combat China’s unfair, anti-free market trade practices that distort the global market;
- Reaffirm the U.S. government’s commitment to the World Trade Organization (WTO); and
- Allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection to update its staffing model to better respond to the challenges of the modern trading system.
A one pager of the trade title, authored by the Ways and Means, is available HERE. Full text of the legislation can be found HERE.
