[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2690 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2690

  To amend the Trade Act of 1974 to provide adjustment assistance to 
 farmers adversely affected by reduced exports resulting from tariffs 
  imposed as retaliation for United States tariff increases, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 14, 2019

 Ms. Blunt Rochester introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                   to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Trade Act of 1974 to provide adjustment assistance to 
 farmers adversely affected by reduced exports resulting from tariffs 
  imposed as retaliation for United States tariff increases, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Trade Assistance for Farmers Act of 
2019''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In recognition that trade policy can result in 
        disparate and disruptive changes to the economy, the Trade 
        Adjustment Assistance program was enacted to help workers 
        adversely impacted by the trade policy decisions of the Federal 
        Government.
            (2) The Trump Administration has made clear that it intends 
        to aggressively use Federal trade statutes, including section 
        232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. 1862), 
        section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2411), and 
        potentially the International Emergency Economic Powers Act 
        (Public Law 95-223), to increase tariffs on selected imports.
            (3) Foreign countries affected by such tariff increases 
        have, as of the date of the enactment of this Act, already 
        raised tariffs on United States agricultural exports or have 
        indicated that they intend to respond by raising tariffs on 
        such agricultural exports.
            (4) Increased tariffs on such agricultural exports threaten 
        to cost United States agricultural producers global market 
        share and reduce the income of producers of affected 
        commodities.
            (5) Farmers adversely impacted by these effects deserve 
        adjustment assistance.

SEC. 3. ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE FOR RETALIATORY TARIFF INCREASES.

    Section 292(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2401a(c)) is 
amended--
            (1) by striking paragraphs (2) and (3); and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (1) the following:
            ``(2) either--
                    ``(A) the volume of imports of articles like, or 
                directly competitive with, the agricultural commodity 
                produced by the group in the marketing year with 
                respect to which the group files the petition increased 
                compared to the average volume of such imports during 
                the 3 marketing years preceding such marketing year; or
                    ``(B)(i) the volume of exports of the agricultural 
                commodity produced by the group in the marketing year 
                with respect to which the group files the petition 
                decreased compared to the average volume of such 
                exports during the 3 marketing years preceding such 
                marketing year; and
                    ``(ii) the decrease in exports described in clause 
                (i) resulted in whole or in part from tariffs imposed 
                on such exports by a foreign country in response to 
                United States tariffs imposed on imports from such 
                country pursuant to action taken under the authority 
                of--
                            ``(I) section 232 of the Trade Expansion 
                        Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. 1862);
                            ``(II) section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 
                        (19 U.S.C. 2411); or
                            ``(III) the International Emergency 
                        Economic Powers Act (Public Law 95-223); and
            ``(3) the increase in imports under subparagraph (B)(i) or 
        the decrease in exports under subparagraph (B)(ii) contributed 
        importantly to the decrease in the national average price, 
        quantity of production, or value of production of, or cash 
        receipts for, the agricultural commodity, as described in 
        paragraph (1).''.
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