Sen. Brown Hoping Trade Cheats Bill Is Part of Customs Modernization Package

An author of Fighting Trade Cheats, a bill that would create a private right of action for customs fraud and hike penalties for both fraud and gross negligence, said a customs modernization package could be a vehicle for his bill to become law.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who co-sponsored the bipartisan bill (see 2303160067) told International Trade Today that he's been talking to the Senate Finance Committee chairman about what trade agenda items could be part of that package, including this push.

Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., co-authored a proposal with Brown a few years ago that ultimately became the rapid response labor mechanism in the NAFTA replacement.

"I talk to Wyden all the time about something as comprehensive as we can do, so I'm always hopeful that our ideas on trade can be put into a package, because I think that's the only way you get stuff done around here on trade," Brown said in a brief hallway interview at the Capitol Sept. 12.

Brown is also a co-sponsor of Level the Playing Field Act 2.0, a change to antidumping and countervailing duty laws that was prominent at a recent House Select Committee on China hearing (see 2308310052) and has come up at the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee (see 2304190036).

When asked whether he thinks this attention will give the bill momentum in the House, Brown said: "I think that there's a lot of bipartisan support for it. I think there's a lot of support among large numbers of members of Congress in both parties. Whether that's in the [House] leadership's mind -- and it's such a top-down place -- whether that's in the leadership's mind to move, I have no idea."