Ranking Republican on Trade Subcommittee Blasts Trade Provisions in Competes Act

Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska, the new ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, testified to the Rules Committee that the trade section of the America Competes Act of 2022 contains items that could have a "significant negative impact on our economy," and that Republicans didn't see anything about it until last week. He noted that his amendment that would have renewed trade promotion authority, which gives Congress a say in new free trade negotiations, was ruled out of order, so it will not get a vote.

"We are stuck with a Democratic wish list," he said, including a partisan renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program included in the Competes Act, which he said had unreasonable environmental criteria. He also criticized the Trade Adjustment Assistance section of the bill, which he said would cost taxpayers over $22 billion and would discourage displaced workers from returning to the workforce. He said Republicans on the subcommittee support the Senate GSP renewal.

Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said his trade title is the culmination of more than a year of work among businesses, labor, and members of the committee. Blumenauer said, "We must confront China head on," and said the trade title does that.

He said that modernizing GSP and the Miscellaneous Tariff bill makes U.S. companies more competitive and that removing finished goods from the MTB restores the purpose of the MTB, which is to support domestic manufacturing. He complained that the Senate's MTB renewal adds 1,400 new items, including air conditioners, microwaves and suitcases. "It directly undermines Congress's goal of bolstering American manufacturing," he said. The change to de minimis and the updates to trade remedy laws also are part of a "long overdue reset of our economic relationship with China," he said.

Import-related provisions in the House China package aren't just in the trade title. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., the ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee, complained that Lacey Act amendments were snuck in that would give the Fish and Wildlife Service the power to determine what is an injurious species without any requirement for public input. He said one amendment "makes wildlife importers guilty until proven innocent," unless the species in question was on a FWS "white list."