[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 157 (Thursday, December 8, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H11270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H11270]]
                UPHOLDING TRADE REMEDY LAWS IN HONG KONG

  Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to 
claim the time of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess).
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, we are on the eve of the 
World Trade Organization's ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, and it is 
critical that the U.S. maintain its upper hand in pursuing its goals of 
a successful Doha Round and also exercising leadership in the global 
trading system.
  I recently led a bipartisan group of my colleagues to Brazil to 
participate in a study trip to help strengthen the bilateral 
relationship between our two countries. During our time there, we met 
with top Brazilian negotiators to discuss key trade issues that we 
expect will be addressed next week in Hong Kong.
  At our meetings, my colleagues and I drove one critical message, and 
that is our government's unwavering commitment to the utilization and 
protection of our trade remedy laws.
  There is no doubt the U.S. employers rely on these laws which serve 
as a fundamental line of defense, an opportunity to police our markets 
against unfair trade and to preserve domestic industries that otherwise 
would be at risk. There is no question that it is the responsibility of 
Congress and the administration to ensure that our firms have the 
proper tools to fight illegally traded goods and services.
  While we are committed to opening our markets, and have done so 
historically, reducing trade-distorting subsidies and eliminating non-
tariff barriers to trade, we are not willing to give up appropriate 
tools that we have to police our market for illegally traded imports.
  To reinforce this, I introduced a resolution, H. Res. 577, calling on 
U.S. negotiators to stand firm in the face of international pressure 
and uphold our trade remedy laws during the WTO's Doha Development 
Agenda Round. Many in the Doha Round, particularly the so-called 
friends of antidumping negotiations, have targeted U.S. antidumping and 
countervailing duty measures as distortions to trade. They claim they 
are antifree trade, and yet the fact remains that our participation in 
a free trading system is contingent on our ability to have access to 
these remedies.
  These laws, as I said, are the last line of defense, and eliminating 
or weakening them is not a solution to making sure that they work 
appropriately. Nor is, in this political climate in Congress, weakening 
or watering down the ability of the U.S. to utilize its appropriate 
trade remedy laws in any way a viable position.
  The time has come for Congress to draw a line in the sand and take a 
much tougher stance with our trading partners to ensure that they fully 
abide by the rules-based global trading system.
  We will not stand by and let other countries try to use negotiations 
to undermine the intent of our domestic trade remedy laws. America will 
no longer tolerate unfair trading practices at the expense of our 
workers. Our trade laws have a fundamental purpose and are used only 
when others break the rules. Congress will not allow this last line of 
defense to be compromised in any way, and our negotiators need to 
recognize that.
  My resolution will make very clear what our position is and in the 
process fend off any attempts to derail our trade laws and put the 
House on record opposing any multilateral agreement that will weaken 
these important U.S. trade protections. Senators Craig and Rockefeller 
have introduced a similar resolution which was included in the Senate's 
tax reconciliation bill, adopted overwhelmingly by the U.S. Senate. 
This week our Chamber voted on our own tax reconciliation measure. We 
are making one step closer to having this resolution become law.
  I urge my colleagues to lend their support to our resolution and join 
me in working to ensure that the Craig-Rockefeller initiative is 
included in Congress' tax reconciliation package as we move to a final 
package. And as we move closer to the trade talks in Hong Kong, which 
we hope will be successful, we must carefully monitor the progress of 
the Doha Round and specifically the rules negotiations to ensure that 
we do not resign ourselves to agreements that would in any other way 
impede American producers from policing the domestic market.
  This is a fundamental issue for a country that recognizes that our 
future is in engaging in the international trading system, but also 
that we need to be prepared to reflect back and at least provide the 
fundamental guarantee to American companies and American workers that 
the rules will be followed.

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