WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-IN) in introducing the Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act, legislation that would strengthen U.S. trade remedy laws and ensure they remain effective tools to fight against unfair trade practices and protect American businesses.
This legislation would improve the U.S. trade remedy system and respond to repeat offenders and serial cheaters, leveling the playing field for American manufacturing. It also responds to China’s unfair trade practices, specifically its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which provides subsidies to China-based or China-operated companies doing business in countries outside of China.
“China has been bending the rules for decades,” said Sen. Tuberville. “We have to fight back. Alabama’s manufacturers work hard, and as long as the playing field is level, they can outcompete anyone in the world. This bill is one step toward ensuring that the rules are enforced and China has to play fair.”
“Our bill will protect American jobs and combat China’s unfair trade practices,” said Sen. Young. “China has distorted the free market by dumping undervalued products and subsidizing industries, actions designed to harm American businesses and workers. This legislation will help level the playing field to ensure the United States can outcompete the Chinese Communist Party.”
U.S. Sens. Tuberville and Young were joined by U.S. Sens. Jim Banks (R-IN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Jon Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Tina Smith (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Roger Wicker (R-MS) in introducing the legislation.
U.S. Representatives Beth Van Duyne (R-TX-24) and Terri Sewell (D-AL-7) are leading companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
The legislation is endorsed by the American Iron and Steel Institute, the Steel Manufacturers Association, and the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association.
Sen. Tuberville cosponsored this legislation in the 118th Congress.
Full text of the legislation can be found here.
BACKGROUND:
The Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act would revise the U.S. antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) laws to ensure international trade regulations and requirements do not unfairly favor international competitors, especially in the steel industry. The Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act would update U.S. trade remedy laws to establish the new concept of “successive investigations,” which would improve the U.S. trade remedy system’s efforts to curb circumvention efforts from bad actors designed to undercut our domestic industries and increase market share.
American companies are on the receiving end of China’s increasingly predatory economic behavior. In recent years, China’s unfair trade practices have culminated in grave economic consequences that affect American workers. For example, Chinese-supported companies move portions of production to other countries to circumvent American duties, a practice known as “country hopping.” China’s BRI also unfairly subsidizes products made in other countries, rather than just in China. In addition to competing with these unfair trade practices, American companies have to contend with long lead times before the Department of Commerce initiates a new anti-circumvention inquiry.
Around half of the unfair trade cases are in the steel industry. However, these unfair trade cases also affect industries that make engines, furniture, hardwood plywood, pipes and tubes, wood moldings, magnesium, paper, shrimp, carrier bags, kitchen cabinets, quartz countertops, tires, and many others.
The Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act pushes back against China’s anti-free market practices by providing the Department of Commerce with more tools to stop circumvention tactics. These tools include:
- Establishing the concept of “successive investigations” under AD and CVD laws. The new AD/CVD investigations would improve the effectiveness of the trade remedy law to combat repeat offenders by making it easier for petitioners to bring new cases when production moves to another country
- Expediting timelines for successive investigations and creating new factors for the International Trade Commission to consider about the relationship between recently completed trade cases and successive trade cases for the same imported product
- Providing the Department of Commerce the authority to apply CVD law to subsidies provided by a government to a company operating in a different country
- Imposing statutory requirements for anti-circumvention inquiries to clarify the process and timeline
- Specifying deadlines for preliminary and final determinations
Thanks to the state’s rich natural resources and abundance of mineral deposits, Alabama has a proud history as a metals and manufacturing leader. According to the Alabama Department of Commerce, there are more than 1,100 metal manufacturing companies in the state, including national and global leaders in steel, pipelines, composites, and specialty metals. Those companies employ more than 45,000 Alabamians and export nearly $1.4 billion worth of metal manufactured goods per year. Today, Alabama is home to three of the top seven largest pipe manufacturing companies in the nation.
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP, and Aging Committees.
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