ManufactureThis is having a chuckle today.  According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) a bill currently working its way through the Senate might be too helpful, and thus could get the USTR “bogged down” in its work.

  Specifically, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus has co-sponsored a bill (S. 1919, the Trade Enforcement Act of 2007) aimed at strengthening a variety of U.S. trade remedies and creating a chief trade enforcer to oversee WTO rulings.  At a committee hearing yesterday, USTR general counsel Warren Maruyama rejected the bill noting that “Sometimes if you get too many tools or too much process you can get bogged down.”

Bogged down?  The Bush administration has overseen a threefold increase in the U.S. trade deficit with China on its watch (from $83 billion in 2001, to $256 billion in 2007) and has presided over a near doubling of the overall trade deficit, to a walloping $709 billion in 2007.  While some of that increase comes from inevitable global developments and increased dependence on foreign oil, there’s almost no one who wouldn’t recognize predatory foreign practices as a prime culprit.  As such, it would seem that USTR cold use all the help it can get.

Take China.  As ManufactureThis noted yesterday, the Treasury Department remains concerned about China’s deliberately undervalued currency.  And even the USTR readily admits to other serious trade problems with Beijing, including piracy and intellectual property theft.

So, if these varied practices are continuing to hurt U.S. manufacturing, why not welcome any and all possible tools?

Interestingly, one of the witnesses at yesterday’s hearing was TradeWins’ John Magnus, a co-author AAM’s recent ‘Enforcing the Rules’ report.  In his prepared statement, Magnus noted that “America’s global diplomatic and financial strategies are going to have to make more and more space for…energetic trade enforcement.”

Whether S. 1919 successfully makes its way through the Senate remains to be seen, but with 3.5 million manufacturing workers idled since 2000, it’s clear that U.S. trade policy needs a re-write.  Simply put, current policy isn’t working, and the USTR should cheerfully admit that they can use an extra hand. 

The logical option would be for both the House and Senate to pass strong trade enforcement legislation by the end of 2008 that provides for:
-strong remedies to address China’s illegal currency manipulation;
-strengthening of U.S. trade laws to ensure that American workers and producers have the same opportunity to compete in the global marketplace as their overseas competitors;
-reform of tax, energy, and health care policies to make sure that manufacturing can fairly compete.
-new standards and enforcement to ensure that imported goods are safe for U.S. consumers.

Both USTR and Congress must get on the ball.  Too many U.S. jobs are hanging in the balance.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 7:59 pm and is filed under Enforcing Trade Laws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.