Today’s hearing comes at an important juncture in our trade relationship with China. I welcome today’s hearing. We held similar hearings last Congress to highlight the Chinese government’s state-led, non-market, anti-competitive approach that threatens American workers and businesses. Mr. Chairman, I hope we can all agree that it is time to move from rhetoric to action.
House Democrats led efforts to pass forceful legislation in the America COMPETES Act that helps workers and firms who have been displaced by offshoring to China. It incorporated many of the concepts and values that enjoyed broad, bipartisan support in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
It closes the de minimis loophole, strengthens our trade remedy laws, creates an outbound screen for Chinese investments, and it updates the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill to exclude finished goods – more than half of which come from China and undercut American manufacturers. This legislation is meant to level the playing field so that American workers and businesses are no longer disadvantaged by China’s double standard.
Last year, my Republican colleagues largely did not support these legislative efforts despite acknowledgment of the direct challenges China poses to American competitiveness. I hope we can work together to match rhetoric with legislative action. We can no longer wait to act.
USTR’s report to Congress on China’s WTO compliance makes clear that China’s record is poor. After more than 20 years of WTO membership, China still embraces a non-market approach despite China’s own representations that it would pursue open, market-oriented policies. If anything, China has doubled down on its anti-competitive, trade distorting practices. Today, China is the world’s leading offender in creating nonmarket capacity, as evidenced by the severe and persistent excess capacity in several industries, including steel and aluminum. And, China’s production methods are some of the dirtiest world.
This resulting over-production and dirty manufacturing has distorted global markets and contributed to massive increases in carbon pollution, harming U.S. workers and manufacturers in both the United States and third countries, where U.S. exports of steel products compete with exports from China. As we’ll hear from one of our witnesses today, Roy Houseman with the United Steel Workers, my friend Terri Sewell has introduced legislation to address these unfair trade practices.
China also continues to exploit loopholes in our customs laws. Some Chinese company have developed a business model centered on exploiting the de minimis provision to evade oversight at the border and avoid paying duties, which undercuts U.S. companies playing by the rules. Because of this loophole, there is no way to tell how many of the more than two million packages per day contain products made through forced labor, intellectual property theft, or are otherwise dangerous.
The Chinese textile industry benefits from the deplorable treatment and forced labor of Uyghurs and other minorities in the Xinjiang region of China. Lack of oversight at U.S. borders makes it even more difficult for CBP to intercept these shipments. As noted by Mr. Houseman in his testimony, the de minimis loophole can allow evasion of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Closing the de minimis loophole and addressing forced labor are important to me. The fruits of modern-day slavery have no place in the U.S. market.
This subcommittee must send a clear message to China that the United States will unequivocally protect worker and human rights. And we must continue to encourage our allies to boldly respond to China’s unfair trade practices, both bilaterally and multilaterally. I stand ready to work with my Republican colleagues on China-related legislation and turn our rhetoric into action. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on these issues as we consider ways to more effectively address China’s unfair trading practices.
With that, I’ll conclude my opening remarks. Let me now yield to my friend, Chairman Smith.
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