Trade Groups Tell Congress to Kill Level the Playing Field Act 2.0

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, joined by 30 other trade groups, told the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees' leadership that they oppose the Level the Playing Field Act 2.0, which would rewrite antidumping and countervailing duty laws to favor domestic interests.

No trade groups representing metal importers signed on. Steel and iron products dominate the AD/CVD orders, though rubber and tires, paper and some consumer goods such as wooden furniture, washing machines and mattresses are also subject to AD/CVD orders. The American Clean Power Association, which is affected by AD/CVD orders on solar panels, is a signatory.

The letter said the bill "would make far-reaching changes to technical trade remedy rules," and those changes "would benefit a handful of domestic interests at the expense of all other sectors of the economy, especially downstream purchasers of primary industrial inputs."

They also said: "At a time when the Congress should be aiming to enhance the global competitiveness of American industry and the attractiveness of the United States as a venue for both domestic and international investment, heaping new tariff burdens on American industry would send exactly the wrong signal. By substantially raising prices for a host of industrial inputs, this measure will undermine the growth of the innovative, value-added manufacturing industries that the United States should be working hard to support and attract."

The groups say the bill "would compress timelines, move up deadlines, and limit extensions in AD/CVD proceedings in ways that would hamstring agencies and respondents already scrambling to meet timelines outlined in the statute." They also wrote that the law would revise methodologies for calculating duties so that duties would be higher.

They argued that the bill's proponents point to Chinese economic abuses, but this bill would result in higher tariffs on imports from close allies. They argued: "While the U.S. has over 230 AD/CVD duties in place on Chinese goods -- with the result that Chinese imports represents less than 2% of total U.S. steel consumption -- this proposal would target steel and aluminum imports from Germany and Japan, amino acid and chemical imports from France, and pastas from Italy." They say if passed, there would likely be retaliatory measures from trading partners whose goods became subject to additional duties.

The letter cited a Government Accountability Office report that noted that $30.2 billion worth of imports were subject to AD/CVD in fiscal year 2021, and that as of March 2022, there were 657 active orders covering 59 countries. The same report noted that of 585 investigations across the 10 years ending in 2021, 432 ended up with AD/CVD orders.

The groups told the committees that they are worried that other countries could pass similar legislation "that could limit U.S. exports of agricultural and industrial goods."

The American Apparel and Footwear Association, the National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, and Fresh Produce of the Americas are signatories, but most of the groups are those with exporting interests, such as agricultural producers, the American Petroleum Institute, or those with both importing and exporting roles, such as auto manufacturers and the National Foreign Trade Council.

The letter says farmers are concerned that the law would raise prices on biodiesel and fertilizers.