Trade Policy Advocacy Group Says Parts of Senate USICA Undermines Approach to China

The Coalition for a Prosperous America is asking the House Ways and Means Committee to move Democratic bills to curtail the use of de minimis and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and to pass the Democratic version of a Generalized System of Preferences benefits program bill. Whatever the committee recommends will be subject to a cross-Capitol compromise, as part of a larger China package called the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. The Senate’s Trade Act of 2021, part of that package, also included requirements to reopen a broad exclusion process for Section 301 tariffs on China.

The coalition is highly critical of that provision, saying it would diminish America’s “leverage to deal with China’s efforts to undermine U.S. economic and national security,” and could end up sending tens of billions of dollars to importers of Chinese-made goods. They are particularly critical of the way “severe economic harm” is defined to qualify for an exclusion, saying that it opens the door to companies making unsubstantiated claims that the additional tariffs make the goods unprofitable to import, which they said “makes a mockery of those businesses that did the right thing.”

They also complained that the Senate’s Trade Act adds an interagency process on forced labor abuses, so that before an enforcement action can be implemented, the administration must compare the severity of the violation with other countries’ practices.

“This is absurd, and designed to make issuing Withhold Release Orders more difficult,” the Jan. 24 letter says.

They call Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s bills on GSP and MTB and de minimis “excellent,” and said the MTB “will be immeasurably improved by ensuring the original policy goal -- assistance for American manufacturers -- is the focus.”