[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 60 (Thursday, May 5, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E822-E823]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INTRODUCTION OF THE RECIPROCAL MARKET ACCESS ACT OF 2011

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 5, 2011

  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. 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

[[Page E823]]

markets fully to foreign competitors, yet we gain little market access 
in return. The pending free trade agreement with South Korea is another 
example of a free trade agreement that opens our markets to foreign 
competition while failing to address serious market access concerns in 
Korea.
  We must provide our negotiators with unequivocal guidelines so that 
they do not relinquish our domestic trade protections without 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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