House Trade Subcommittee Announces August 2nd Hearing on China Currency Practices and Trade Remedy Legislation
The House Ways and Means Committee's Trade Subcommittee has issued a press release announcing that it will hold a hearing on legislative proposals relating to trade with China on August 2, 2007.
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Oral testimony at the hearing will be from invited witnesses only. However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.
Hearing to Focus on China Currency and Trade Remedy Legislation
The hearing will focus on legislation relating to trade with China. The legislation to be examined includes bills to address trade-distorting currency practices, as well as legislation to modify U.S. trade remedy laws.
(In addition, the hearing will address the safety of food imports into the U.S. and issues related to the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures overseas and the consistency of those measures with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.)
China Currency Bills (Add'l Duties on China Imports, Etc.)
A number of bills, taking varying approaches, have been introduced to address the problem of persistent and substantial currency misalignment.For example, some would provide for the imposition of antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties to address the fundamental misalignment of a currency in certain circumstances, and require the Treasury Department to consult with countries that are found to have fundamentally misaligned currencies. Others would apply across-the-board duties on all imports from China, so long as China is manipulating its currency.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 06/25/07 news, 07062515, for BP summary on new Senate legislation on foreign currency manipulation.)
Trade Remedy Bills (to Defer WTO Compliance, Etc.)
A wide variety of bills have been introduced in the current Congress to modify the trade remedy laws related to AD, CV, and market disruption. One bill would, among things, overrule a U.S. Federal Circuit opinion requiring the International Trade Commission (ITC) to undertake an additional analytic step before making an affirmative injury determination in certain cases.
Another bill would amend U.S. trade remedy laws so that U.S. manufacturers that use products subject to CV or AD duty proceedings or use domestic like products (industrial users) can participate in such proceedings.
There is also legislation that would clarify that U.S. CV duty law applies to nonmarket economy (NME) countries.Finally, there is a bill pending that would remove the President's discretion not to impose Chinese safeguard relief to the extent that imposing such relief would have an adverse impact on the U.S. economy clearly greater than the benefits of such action.
- comments due by August 16, 2007
Trade Subcommittee press release (TR-5, dated 07/26/07) available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=view&id=6271.