[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 145 (Thursday, October 8, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2493-E2494]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INTRODUCTION OF THE RECIPROCAL MARKET ACCESS ACT OF 2009

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                     HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 8, 2009

  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the 
Reciprocal Market Access Act. In the wake of the biggest economic 
crisis since the Great Depression, our country faces a difficult road 
towards recovery. As part of this effort, it is critical that we ensure 
that our trade policy is working as it should: to generate new 
opportunities for our businesses, strengthen American manufacturing 
capabilities, and reduce the unemployment rate that has risen to the 
highest level in decades.
  American manufacturers of products ranging from optical fiber to 
autos and agriculture face continual problems with access to overseas 
markets. Our own trade negotiators do little to prevent this from 
happening, as it is often standard for trade agreements to open our 
markets fully to foreign competitors, yet we gain little market access 
in return.
  We must provide our negotiators with unequivocal guidelines so that 
they do not relinquish our domestic trade protections without

[[Page E2494]]

gaining meaningful market access for American manufacturers in 
exchange. Unless other governments play by the rules and remove 
barriers to our exports, the U.S. should not acquiesce to their demands 
by further opening our market--which is already the most open market in 
the global economy. Unilateral disarmament in the face of foreign 
protectionist practices is unacceptable, and we must ensure that our 
trade negotiators do not undermine our industries and our workers.
  The Reciprocal Market Access Act would instruct our trade negotiators 
to eliminate foreign market barriers before reducing U.S. tariffs. This 
bill would also provide enforcement authority to reinstate the tariff 
if the foreign government does not honor its commitment to remove its 
barriers.
  This legislation also addresses a serious problem in the current 
trade negotiating process. Tariff and non-tariff sectoral barriers are 
compartmentalized, meaning that a tariff item can be reduced or 
eliminated by our negotiators without securing elimination of the non-
tariff barriers that deny U.S. industry access to a foreign market. 
This legislation would give our government the right to revoke 
concessions to cut tariffs if our trading partners fail to implement 
negotiated commitments to eliminate barriers that had initially been 
identified by U.S. domestic producers for our negotiators.
  The principle of reciprocity--the principle on which this legislation 
is built--is not new. In fact it is a principle that should be 
essential to any effective trade relationship. Cordell Hull, Democrat 
from Tennessee and Roosevelt's Secretary of State in 1933, was 
responsible for bringing this concept into the U.S. and global trade 
systems with the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act of 1934. It was this 
act which formed the basis for the General Agreement on Tariffs and 
Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Mr. Hull developed 
the Act to move away from the negative consequences of the Smoot-Hawley 
Tariff Act, which raised U.S. tariffs on thousands of imports to record 
levels. Smoot-Hawley established the United States as protectionist, 
and provoked a rash of retaliatory measures from our trading partners.
  It is no longer the United States that is shutting its markets to 
foreign competitors. We have the most open market in the world, and 
continue to find ways to lower tariffs and eliminate market barriers. 
Yet this policy is often not reciprocated, as American manufacturers 
find significant barriers to foreign markets while they watch their own 
domestic market share dwindle. The result is quality American companies 
are forced to downsize or close their doors for good, and American 
workers are left jobless.
  That is not free trade. Free trade involves a system where American 
companies are able to compete in markets uninhibited by barriers. It 
involves a level playing field for American companies and our trading 
partners. And I have no doubt that if given a level playing field, 
American companies and American workers can compete in any market.
  The Reciprocal Market Access Act will mandate that at the very least 
any trade agreement does not put American companies and workers at a 
competitive disadvantage. It establishes what should be the standard 
for all trade agreements: a mutually beneficial trade relationship in 
which goods can be freely exchanged and that promotes economic growth.

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