[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 42 (Wednesday, April 5, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H1537-H1538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
H.R. 4808, THE UNFAIR CHINESE AUTOMOTIVE TARIFF EQUALIZATION ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. JONES of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit in
its entirety for the Record a letter from the United States Business
and Industry Council at the conclusion of my remarks, but I will be
reading from parts of this letter.
Mr. Kildee and myself have introduced H.R. 4808, the Unfair Chinese
Automobile Tariff Equalization Act. I am going to read several
paragraphs from this letter that I will submit. It is a letter to me
from Mr. Kevin Kearns, President of the United States Business and
Industry Council.
``Dear Representative Jones: On behalf of the 1,500 U.S. companies
comprising the U.S. Business and Industry Council, I am writing to
express our strong support for H.R. 4808, the Unfair Chinese Automobile
Tariff Equalization Act.
``Equalizing U.S. and Chinese tariffs on passenger cars, as the bill
would require, is an important and greatly overdue step toward
restoring equitable competition in both U.S.-China trade and global
automobile trade. Such competition in turn is essential to restoring
the health of the U.S.-owned automotive sector, which makes us such a
large share of our economy and which has undergirded the American
middle class for so many decades.''
I am going to skip on with paragraphs, Mr. Speaker. Again, I have
asked that this entire letter be submitted for the Record.
``In fact, according to the latest data available, imports have
grabbed two-thirds of the domestic U.S. auto market in 2004, up from 50
percent just 7 years earlier. Small wonder that Ford and GM are
downsizing as fast as they can.
``Much of the blame clearly falls on incompetent trade policies, many
of course supported by Detroit itself in a triumph of shortsightedness.
Presidents of both parties have signed numerous free trade agreements
over the years. But despite the promises made to sell them to an
increasingly skeptical public, they have manifestly failed to open
foreign markets for U.S. producers, or even to limit predatory foreign
commercial practices such as subsidizing, dumping, and exchange rate
manipulation.
``In fact, the trade flows clearly shows that the main new
accomplishments of these trade agreements have been to help U.S. and
foreign-brand automakers alike supply the American market from low-wage
export platforms like Mexico.
``As symbolized by the ludicrously unequal auto tariffs left in place
by U.S. negotiators of China trade deals, U.S. policy on automotive
trade with China is speeding down the same road and will likely produce
the same results. The United States still runs a small trade surplus in
autos with China, but since 2000, Chinese auto exports to the United
States have outpaced the United States vehicle exports to China by a
four-to-one ratio.
``The Unfair Chinese Automotive Tariff Equalization Act can begin
reversing this process and help put the U.S.-owned auto industry and
the domestic manufacturing base as a whole back on the path of high-
wage growth not low-wage stagnation. And the time to pass it is now,
before the Chinese export drive takes off.''
Mr. Speaker, the close on this letter is, ``We strongly urge prompt
House and Senate passage, and we will do everything we can to help make
it the law of the land.''
Mr. Speaker, I also want to mention that the Chair of the caucus
known as the House Automotive Caucus has urged Members of this House to
support 4808 that is signed by Mr. Kildee and Mr. Upton, and we are
asking just fairness in this trade issue. That is all we are asking, is
that the Congress send a message to the trade negotiators that we in
this Congress want our manufacturers and our workers to be treated
fairly. That is all we are asking in 4808 is to send a message.
If we could get this bill to the floor of the House and pass this
legislation, we would say to our trade negotiators that we need you,
the trade negotiators, to make sure that we have fair trade as it
relates to the American worker and the American manufacturers.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you for this time, and I want
to close by asking God to please bless our men and women in uniform,
and to ask God to please bless the families and to ask God to please
bless America.
United States Business
and Industry Council,
Washington, DC, Mar. 9, 2006.
Congressman Walter Jones,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Representative Jones: On behalf of the 1,500 domestic
U.S. companies comprising the U.S. Business and Industry
Council, I am writing to express our strong support for H.R.
4808, Tbe Unfair Chinese Automotive Tariff Equalization Act.
Equalizing U.S. and Chinese tariffs on passenger cars, as
the bill would require, is an important and greatly overdue
step toward restoring equitable competition in both U,S.-
China trade and global automotive trade. Such competition in
turn is essential to restoring the health of the U.S.-owned
automotive sector, which makes up such a large share of our
economy, and which has undergirded the American middle class
for so many decades.
For many years, America's trade performance in passenger
cars has been nothing less than disastrous. Despite the
proliferation of foreign transplant factories throughout the
country, the United States ran a $101.8 billion trade deficit
in autos and light trucks in 2005. U.S. imports of these
products last year, which totaled more than $126 billion,
represented fully 84 percent of two-way global U.S. vehicle
trade.
In fact, according to the latest data available, imports
had grabbed two-thirds of the domestic U.S. auto market in
2004, up from 50 percent just seven years earlier. Small
wonder that Ford and GM are downsizing as fast as they can.
Much of the blame clearly falls on incompetent trade
policies (many, of course, supported by Detroit itself in a
triumph of short-sightedness). Presidents of both parties
have signed numerous free trade agreements over the years.
But despite the promises made to sell them to an increasingly
skeptical public, they have manifestly failed to open foreign
markets for U.S. producers, or even to limit predatory
foreign commercial practices such as subsidization, dumping,
and exchange-rate manipulation.
In fact, the trade flows clearly show that the main new
accomplishments of these trade agreements have been to help
U.S.- and foreign-brand automakers alike supply the American
market from low-wage export platforms like Mexico.
[[Page H1538]]
As symbolized by the ludicrously unequal auto tariffs left
in place by U.S. negotiators of China trade deals, U.S.
policy on automotive trade with China is speeding down the
same road, and will likely produce the same results. The
United States still runs a small trade surplus in autos with
China. But since 2000, Chinese auto exports to the U.S. have
outpaced U.S. vehicle exports to China by a four-to-one
ratio.
Yet it is vital to realize that the development of China as
an automotive export platform has only just begun. Vehicle
makers from all over the world (Japan, Europe, the United
States, and China itself) are building far more auto
production capacity in the People's Republic than the Chinese
market can possibly absorb. And since China desperately needs
to create jobs to keep politically explosive unemployment in
check, Beijing has no interest in preventing or even slowing
this production glut. Indeed, to reduce joblessness, it has
every interest in encouraging overproduction and exporting
the surplus. The United States, the world's largest single
national automotive market, and the most open major market by
far, is the most promising destination.
Chinese auto makers, who frequently steal U.S. know-how
outright or force their U.S. partners to transfer it, have
already announced plans to sell hundreds of thousands of
vehicles in the United States by 2012. And foreign auto
makers in China (including U.S. multinational companies) will
jump on the export bandwagon as well.
The bottom line is that, without dramatic changes in U.S.
trade policy, China's inevitable emergence as an auto export
power will either further undermine U.S.-owned, U.S.-based
auto production, or it will permit such production to survive
only on a greatly reduced scale, and with a dramatically
lower pay structure.
The Unfair Chinese Automotive Tariff Equalization Act can
begin reversing this process, and help put the U.S.-owned
auto industry and the domestic manufacturing base as a whole
back on the path of high-wage growth not low-wage stagnation.
And the time to pass it is now, before the Chinese export
drive takes off.
We strongly urge prompt House and Senate passage, and we
will do everything we can to help make it the law of the
land.
Sincerely,
Kevin L. Kearns,
President.
____________________