[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 350 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 350

 Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the Republic of India's 
              closed market to United States ash exports.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 8, 2000

     Mr. Thomas (for himself and Mr. Enzi) submitted the following 
       resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                              A RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the Republic of India's 
              closed market to United States ash exports.

Whereas the United States had a $5.4 billion trade deficit with India in 1999, 
        due in part to India's restrictive trade practices which keep otherwise 
        competitive foreign goods from entering the Indian market;
Whereas United States soda ash, a chemical used predominantly in making glass, 
        is one of the products being kept from entering the Indian market by 
        those restrictive trade practices;
Whereas India's barriers to United States soda ash imports include a tariff 
        which in 1997 was 35 percent, putting it among the highest in the world;
Whereas India's tariff barriers have steadily increased since 1997 by, inter 
        alia:

    (1) a 4 percent special additional tariff introduced in 1998 on nearly 
all imports;

    (2) an additional 10 percent surcharge added to the applied existing 
tariff rates in 1999 on nearly all imports; and

    (3) a ``customs simplification'' in 1999 which increased by 5 percent 
tariffs previously set at 0 percent, 10 percent, 20 percent and 30 percent 
rates;

Whereas India's 1999/2000 budget has further increased the tariff on soda ash to 
        38.5 percent, making it the highest in the world and creating an 
        impossible trade barrier for individual United States soda ash exports 
        to overcome in order to remain competitive;
Whereas India has erected further barriers to United States soda ash through the 
        imposition of a ``temporary'' order by India's Monopolies and 
        Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (``MRTPC''), which precludes 
        United States producers from exporting to India through the American 
        Natural Soda Ash Corporation (``ANSAC''), an export trading joint 
        venture which operates in strict accordance with the provisions of the 
        Export Trade Promotion Act of 1917 (15 U.S. Code Sec. 61 et seq.) and 
        the Export Trading Company Act of 1982 (15 U.S. Code Sec. 4001 et seq.);
Whereas this MRTPC order effectively maintains a complete and total de facto 
        embargo on United States soda ash exports to India;
Whereas it appears that the MRTPC order was issued at the behest of Indian soda 
        ash producers solely to protect their local market monopoly, rather than 
        for legitimate reasons;
Whereas since 1995 the United States Trade Representative's (``USTR'') National 
        Trade Estimate Report to Congress has identified India's denial of 
        United States access to its soda ash market as a high priority;
Whereas, in January 1999, in response to an ANSAC petition, the USTR initiated a 
        ``country practice'' petition to suspend India's duty-free benefits 
        under the Generalized System of Preferences (``GSP'') program on the 
        grounds that India, by virtue of the foregoing tariffs and orders, fails 
        to provide the United States equitable and reasonable access to its soda 
        ash market;
Whereas, on February 14, 2000, U.S. Trade Representative Barshefsky and 
        Secretary of Commerce Daley issued a joint press release concluding that 
        ``U.S. soda ash is being shut out of the Indian market;''
Whereas, in March 2000, in apparent response to ANSAC's efforts to open India's 
        soda ash market, the MRTPC issued a ``show cause'' order why ANSAC 
        representatives should not be held in criminal contempt;
Whereas the basis for that show cause order were statements made by ANSAC 
        representatives during testimony before the USTR's GSP Subcommittee at a 
        hearing in Washington in March 1999, which statements characterized the 
        Indian soda ash market as closed and the actions of the MRTPC as unfair;
Whereas the actions of the MRTPC appear to be designed to ensure that India's 
        market remains closed to United States exports; and
Whereas the unfair closure of India's market to United States soda ash exports 
        runs counter to the concepts of fair and free trade and to the interests 
        of India's soda ash consumers: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) it is the sense of the Senate that India's tariffs on 
        United States soda ash exports are excessive and are designed 
        solely to exclude unfairly United States producers from the 
        Indian market;
            (2) the Senate strongly urges President Clinton, the USTR 
        and the Government of India to use the mid-September visit to 
        Washington of India's Prime Minister Vajpayee as an opportunity 
        to address and settle the soda ash dispute by allowing United 
        States soda ash equitable and reasonable access to the Indian 
        market through the ANSAC joint venture at tariff reduced rates 
        consistent with WTO normalization levels; and
            (3) the Senate calls on the President and the USTR, in the 
        absence of such a settlement, promptly to begin the process of 
        suspending India's GSP benefits.
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