[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 14, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H587]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, I have a strong belief in the power of 
international trade agreements to make a profound difference. It is not 
just because 95 percent of the global economy is outside the United 
States. These agreements are necessary to raise standards, protect the 
environment, and to avoid the tragedy of the commons.
  I have seen the global economy raise living standards in China, 
Africa, and India, Singapore being the most powerful example. However, 
there were decidedly mixed results with Mexico. The gap between theory 
and practice showed that the promise of NAFTA was overblown and that 
the critics were right.
  Poor Mexican farmers could not compete against massively subsidized 
American corn, and U.S. workers could not compete against $3 an hour 
Mexican factory workers.
  Too much of American business was focused on financial and tax 
engineering, not actually engineering better products. They were gaming 
the tax system and extending patent protection, not winning new 
patents. The worst example was GE's downward spiral under Jack Welch's 
ruthless capitalism. However, I have been encouraged with the Biden 
administration's worker-centered trade policy.
  I am proud of my work as the lead Democrat on the Ways and Means 
Committee dealing with international trade, working to level the 
playing field, fighting to improve trade agreements.
  We made major advances, for example, reducing illegal logging by more 
than 40 percent and providing legislation that was a model for other 
countries to help stem this damaging practice. Our May 10th Agreement 
provided enforceable labor and environmental standards.
  I was pleased to help lead the effort to revise NAFTA to strengthen 
its environmental protections, worker protections, and the enforcement 
of agreements to protect these advances. I hope these NAFTA revisions 
will start a new era of trade policy, but it is time to push back 
against the Chinese.
  I am tired of their two-tiered system where they claim to be a 
developing country when it works to their advantage while being an 
economic powerhouse, one of the largest and most powerful in the world.
  We must fight to protect and strengthen the WTO. There is no 
substitute for our being engaged in Geneva along with 163 other 
countries. It is hard work, but it is worth it.
  Finally, we must battle to have China honor their WTO commitments 
made three decades ago. I have a special concern about the de minimis 
loophole, a provision in our tax code that allows China to ship 
directly to American consumers $800 or less in terms of product value. 
It is going to allow a billion packages into the United States economy 
untaxed, uninspected. We have 15 Republican attorneys general who have 
raised the alarm about this provision. We are seeing shoddy products 
made with slave labor. They are shipping fentanyl precursors directly 
to American drug dealers. It is time to stop that practice.
  I have legislation that would close the de minimis loophole. I 
strongly urge my colleagues to cosponsor my Import Security and 
Fairness Act, which would stop these products flowing from a nonmarket 
economy on the watch list. Currently, that is just China, but they are 
the source of 60 percent of these 1 billion de minimis products. Doing 
so will protect American business, American consumers, public safety, 
and human rights. We can usher in a new era of worker-centered 
sustainable trade. The world is depending on us.

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