[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 498 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 498

  Urging the President to take immediate steps to establish a plan to 
   adopt the recommendations of the United States-China Economic and 
Security Review Commission in its 2004 Report to the Congress in order 
 to correct the current imbalance in the bilateral trade and economic 
  relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of 
                                 China.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 23, 2004

 Mr. Ryan of Ohio submitted the following concurrent resolution; which 
            was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
  Urging the President to take immediate steps to establish a plan to 
   adopt the recommendations of the United States-China Economic and 
Security Review Commission in its 2004 Report to the Congress in order 
 to correct the current imbalance in the bilateral trade and economic 
  relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of 
                                 China.

Whereas the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States 
        and the People's Republic of China is heavily imbalanced and undermining 
        the long-term economic health of the United States;
Whereas the 2004 Report to the Congress of the United States-China Economic and 
        Security Review Commission states that in 2003 the United States trade 
        deficit in goods with China reached $124,000,000,000, with Chinese 
        imports to the United States outnumbering United States exports to China 
        by more than five to one;
Whereas the Commission's 2004 Report makes several recommendations to correct 
        this imbalance in the bilateral trade and economic relationship between 
        the United States and China;
Whereas the Commission's 2004 Report also finds that the Government of China has 
        not satisfactorily adhered to the commitments it made in order to accede 
        to membership into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and has failed to 
        carry out many of the significant market-opening reforms it promised;
Whereas the Commission's 2004 Report further states that ``a key contributing 
        factor to the [United States trade] deficit is the undervaluation of the 
        Chinese yuan against the U.S. dollar'' and that the Government of China 
        continues to heavily subsidize its manufacturing sector through such 
        means as tax incentives, preferential access to credit and capital from 
        state-owned financial institutions, subsidized utilities, and other 
        measures;
Whereas the large and rapidly expanding United States trade deficit in goods 
        with China is contributing to the erosion of the United States 
        manufacturing sector; and
Whereas this imbalance in the bilateral trade and economic relationship between 
        the United States and China has negative implications for the national 
        security of the United States: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 

SECTION 1. ESTABLISHMENT OF PLAN TO IMPLEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 
              UNITED STATES-CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW 
              COMMISSION.

    (a) Plan.--The President is strongly urged to take immediate steps 
to establish a plan to implement the recommendations contained in the 
2004 Report to the Congress of the United States-China Economic and 
Security Review Commission in order to correct the current imbalance in 
the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States 
and the People's Republic of China.
    (b) Contents.--Such plan should contain the following:
            (1) Actions to address China's policy of undervaluing its 
        currency, to encourage China to provide for a substantial 
        upward revaluation of the Chinese yuan against the United 
        States dollar and to re-peg the yuan to a trade-weighted basket 
        of currencies, and to concurrently encourage United States 
        trading partners with similar interests to join in these 
        efforts.
            (2) Actions to make more use of the World Trade 
        Organization (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism and applicable 
        United States trade laws to redress unfair Chinese trade 
        practices, including China's exchange rate manipulation, denial 
        of trading and distribution rights, lack of intellectual 
        property rights protection, objectionable labor standards, 
        subsidies to export industries, forced technology transfers 
        used as a condition of doing business, and using the United 
        States Trade Representative to consult with trading partners 
        who have mutual interests at the outset of each new trade 
        dispute with China.
            (3) Actions by the United States Trade Representative and 
        other appropriate United States Government officials to ensure 
        that the World Trade Organization's Transitional Review 
        Mechanism process is a meaningful multilateral review that 
        measures China's compliance with its WTO commitments and to 
        work with the European Union, Japan, and other major trading 
        partners to produce a separate, unified annual report that 
        measures and reports on China's progress toward compliance and 
        coordinates a plan of action to address China's shortcomings.
            (4)(A) Actions to address the governance and security 
        concerns relating to China's outreach to the global capital 
        markets, including the need for the United States Trade 
        Representative and the Department of Commerce to undertake 
        immediately a comprehensive investigation of China's system of 
        government subsidies for manufacturing, including tax 
        incentives, preferential access to credit and capital from 
        state-owned financial institutions, subsidized utilities, 
        investment conditions requiring technology transfers, 
        discriminatory consumption credits that shift demand toward 
        Chinese goods, Chinese state-owned banks' practice of 
        noncommercial-based policy lending to state-owned and other 
        enterprises, and China's dual pricing system for coal and other 
        energy sources.
            (B) A report to be submitted to Congress by the Department 
        of Commerce not later than 90 days after the date of the 
        adoption of this concurrent resolution that (i) will contain 
        the results of the actions described in subparagraph (A), (ii) 
        will assess whether any of China's practices described in such 
        subparagraph may be actionable subsidies under the World Trade 
        Organization, and (iii) will describe specific steps that the 
        United States will take to address these practices.
            (5) Actions to address China's coordinated national 
        strategy for technology development and to establish and 
        publish a coordinated, comprehensive national policy and 
        strategy designed to meet China's challenge to the maintenance 
        of United States scientific and technological leadership and 
        competitiveness.
            (6) Any additional actions outlined by the United States-
        China Economic and Security Review Commission in its 2004 
        Report to the Congress that affects the economic relationship 
        between the United States and China.
                                 <all>