Commitment to fair trade means good paying, stable jobs
The manufacturing sector has lost almost 3 million jobs since the beginning of 2001. How do you put a price on the “tax” of a job lost due to government actions like CAFTA? 37 million Americans, 20% more than in 2000, now live in poverty.
That’s not how we compete with developing nations, by undoing our own progress with all the burden going on working families. This district needs good paying, stable jobs and a commitment to fair trade as much as it needs tree-lined sidewalks.
Source: Press release on www.larrykissell.com, “Less Taxes”
, Jan 24, 2006
Tariffs against countries undervaluing their currency.
Kissell signed H.R.2378 & S.1027
Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to require the administering authority to determine, based on certain requirements, whether the exchange rate of the currency of an exporting country is undervalued or overvalued (misaligned) against the U.S. dollar for an 18-month period; and to take certain actions under a countervailing duty or antidumping duty proceeding to offset such misalignment in cases of an affirmative determination. Congress makes the following findings:
The strength, vitality, and stability of the US economy and the openness and effectiveness of the global trading system are critically dependent upon an international monetary regime of orderly and flexible exchange rates.
Increasingly in recent years, a number of foreign governments have undervalued their currencies by means of protracted, large-scale intervention in foreign exchange markets, and this fundamental misalignment has substantially contributed to distortions in trade flows.
This exchange depreciation serves as a subsidy for, and facilitates dumping of, exports from countries that engage in this mercantilist practice.
It is consistent with the agreements of the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund that US trade law make explicit that fundamental undervaluation by an exporting country of its currency is actionable as a countervailable export subsidy and alternatively can be offset by antidumping duties.
Source: Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act 09-HR2378 on May 13, 2009
Review free trade agreements biennially for rights violation.
Kissell signed H.R.3012
Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment Act or the TRADE Act:
review biennially certain free trade agreements (including Uruguay Round Agreements) between the US and foreign countries to evaluate their economic, environmental, national security, health, safety, and other effects; and
report on them to the Congressional Trade Agreement Review Committee (established by this Act), including analyses of specified aspects of each agreement and certain information about agreement parties, such as whether the country has a democratic form of government, respects certain core labor rights and fundamental human rights, protects intellectual property rights, and enforces environmental laws.
Declares that implementing bills of new trade agreements shall not be subject to expedited consideration or special procedures limiting amendment, unless such agreements include certain standards with respect to:
labor;
human rights;
environment and public safety;
food and product health and safety;
provision of services;
investment;
procurement;
intellectual property;
agriculture;
trade remedies and safeguards;
dispute resolution and enforcement;
technical assistance;
national security; and
taxation.
Requires the President to submit to Congress a plan for the renegotiation of existing trade agreements to bring them into compliance with such standards. Expresses the sense of Congress that certain processes for U.S. trade negotiations should be followed when Congress considers legislation providing special procedures for implementing bills of trade agreements.
Impose tariffs against countries which manipulate currency.
Kissell signed Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act
Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to include as a "countervailable subsidy" requiring action under a countervailing duty or antidumping duty proceeding the benefit conferred on merchandise imported into the US from foreign countries with fundamentally undervalued currency.
Defines "benefit conferred" as the difference between:
the amount of currency provided by a foreign country in which the subject merchandise is produced; and
the amount of currency such country would have provided if the real effective exchange rate of its currency were not fundamentally undervalued.
Determines that the currency of a foreign country is fundamentally undervalued if for an 18-month period:
the government of the country engages in protracted, large-scale intervention in one or more foreign exchange markets
the country's real effective exchange rate is undervalued by at least 5%
the country has experienced significant and persistent global current account
surpluses; and
the country's government has foreign asset reserves exceeding the amount necessary to repay all its debt obligations.
[Explanatory note from Wikipedia.com "Exchange Rate"]:
Between 1994 and 2005, the Chinese yuan renminbi was pegged to the US dollar at RMB 8.28 to $1. Countries may gain an advantage in international trade if they manipulate the value of their currency by artificially keeping its value low. It is argued that China has succeeded in doing this over a long period of time. However, a 2005 appreciation of the Yuan by 22% was followed by a 39% increase in Chinese imports to the US. In 2010, other nations, including Japan & Brazil, attempted to devalue their currency in the hopes of subsidizing cheap exports and bolstering their ailing economies. A low exchange rate lowers the price of a country's goods for consumers in other countries but raises the price of imported goods for consumers in the manipulating country.
Require open markets for US goods in all trade agreements.
Kissell signed Reciprocal Market Access Act
Reciprocal Market Access Act of 2011: Prohibits the President from agreeing to the reduction or elimination of the existing rate of duty on any product in order to carry out a foreign trade agreement until the President certifies to Congress that the US has obtained the reduction or elimination of tariff and nontariff barriers and policies and practices of such foreign country with respect to US exports of any product that has the same physical characteristics and uses as the product for which the President seeks to modify its rate of duty.
Congress finds the following:
One of the fundamental tenets of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is reciprocal market access.
The American people have a right to expect that the promises that trade negotiators and policy makers offer in terms of the market access opportunities that will be available to United States businesses and their employees if trade agreements are reached, will, in fact, be realized.
With each subsequent round of bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade negotiations, tariffs have been significantly reduced or eliminated for many manufactured goods, leaving nontariff barriers as the most pervasive, significant, and challenging barriers to US exports and market opportunities
The US market is widely recognized as one of the most open markets in the world.
Often the only leverage the US has to obtain the reduction or elimination of nontariff barriers imposed by foreign countries is to negotiate the amount of tariffs the US imposes on imports from those foreign countries.
The purpose of this Act is to require that trade negotiations achieve measurable results for US businesses by ensuring that trade agreements result in expanded market access for United States exports and not solely the elimination of tariffs on goods imported into the US.
