[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 104 (Friday, September 8, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8292-S8293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 350--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE 
  REPUBLIC OF INDIA'S CLOSED MARKET TO UNITED STATES SODA ASH EXPORTS

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

                              S. Res. 350

       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 exporters 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;

[[Page S8293]]

       (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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