[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1639-1640]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             TRADE FACILITATION AND TRADE ENFORCEMENT BILL

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, 2015 was an extremely productive year for 
our Nation's trade agenda as, on multiple occasions, both parties were 
able to come together to take several steps to advance effective trade 
policies that will put our Nation on a more prosperous course.
  Hopefully, we will take another step here in the Senate before we 
leave for the recess.
  Before the Senate breaks for recess, we are likely to vote on the 
conference report for H.R. 644, the Trade Facilitation and Trade 
Enforcement Act of 2015, legislation that originally passed in this 
Chamber back in May of last year. As chairman of the Senate Finance 
Committee, I was one of the original authors of this legislation, and I 
was honored to serve as the chair of the conference committee. I 
believe our report represents a strong bipartisan, bicameral agreement 
that will effectively address a number of trade policy priorities. In 
fact, it has already passed the House with a strong, super-majority 
vote. I am hoping to see a similar vote here in the Senate.
  I would like to take a few minutes to talk about some of the 
specifics of this legislation, which is generally referred to simply as 
``the Customs bill.'' If enacted, this compromise version of the 
Customs bill would address three main policy goals.
  The first goal is to facilitate and streamline the flow of legitimate 
trade into and out of the United States. To accomplish this goal, the 
bill, among other things, reduces paperwork and bureaucratic burdens on 
U.S. traders and improves consultation between trade policymakers at 
the Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, agency and Congress, as well 
as private actors within the trade community. It also modernizes the 
way CBP operates by authorizing the continued development and 
implementation of the Automated Commercial Environment, or ACE. And it 
sets procedures and establishes deadlines to ensure that all import 
requirements are fulfilled through a single window process. These 
changes will facilitate trade by reducing unnecessary burdens and 
delays created by an overly bureaucratic system. This will improve our 
Nation's competitiveness, create jobs here at home, and provide

[[Page 1640]]

numerous benefits for our trusted trading partners.
  The second major goal of the Customs bill is to improve enforcement 
of our trade laws. Toward that end, the bill establishes a new process 
at CBP--with strict deadlines and judicial review--for dealing with 
evasion of our antidumping and countervailing duties laws. The bill 
also ensures that all distributions required under the Continued 
Dumping and Subsidy Act are made correctly.
  I am particularly pleased that the bill improves protections for 
intellectual property rights by creating additional monitoring tools to 
detect violations at the border and expanding requirements for USTR's 
existing Special 301 Report on our trading partners' IP enforcement 
efforts to include trade secrets. It also establishes a chief 
innovation and intellectual property negotiator at USTR to better 
ensure that our trade agreements reflect our Nation's interests in 
protecting intellectual property rights.
  Providing proper enforcement and protection for intellectual property 
rights--both domestically and internationally--has long been a priority 
for me in large part because it is so important to Utahns. In Utah 
around 19 percent of the total workforce is directly employed in IP-
intensive jobs, according to a recent report by the U.S. Chamber of 
Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center. That same study also 
noted that Utah's IP industry employs, either directly or indirectly, 
over 590,000 Utahns--or more than half of Utah's workforce. More 
importantly, the IP industry makes up nearly 80 percent of current 
exports from my home State. So, for obvious reasons, protecting IP was 
one of my main focuses in drafting the Customs bill, passing it here in 
the Senate, and putting together the conference report.
  I am very pleased that my colleagues on the conference committee 
shared my desire to improve upon our current efforts, and I think our 
inventors and innovators here at home--the people who drive so much of 
our economic growth and prosperity--will benefit greatly from this 
legislation.
  The report addresses other enforcement priorities as well, including 
provisions to give clear direction and robust tools for identifying and 
addressing currency manipulation from our trading partners, an issue 
that I know is of particular interest to a number of our Members here 
in the Senate, as well as to many of our domestic businesses and 
industries. The result of all these enforcement provisions will be 
greater protections for American traders and consumers and a greater 
assurance that foreign competitors will not have unfair advantages in 
the global marketplace.
  The third major goal of the Customs conference report is to 
strengthen the trade promotion authority statute that we enacted last 
year, reflecting various priorities and concerns from members of both 
parties. The conference report strengthens TPA by enhancing Congress's 
oversight role in crafting trade policy, specifically with regard to 
administration nominees and at negotiating rounds for future trade 
agreements. It also strongly reaffirms that trade agreements should not 
include and TPA procedures should not be used with respect to, 
provisions dealing with immigration policy or greenhouse gas emissions. 
The bill also establishes a new negotiating objective to address 
barriers American fishermen face in exporting U.S. fish, seafood, and 
shellfish.
  In addition, the conference report improves provisions relating to 
trafficking in persons in order to strengthen Congressional oversight 
and ensure that appropriate steps are being taken to put an end to 
human trafficking.
  I think most of us would agree that we passed a good TPA bill last 
year. I certainly think that we did. The conference report on the 
Customs bill would simply ensure that the statute better reflects the 
bipartisan will and role of Congress in our trade negotiations.
  Those have been the three main goals of the Customs bill. With this 
conference report, I think we have reached good outcomes on all three. 
But that is not all. Other important issues are also addressed by the 
conference report.
  For example, the bill will combat politically motivated boycotts, 
divestments, and sanctions against Israel, bolstering our already 
strong economic ties with one of our most important strategic allies. 
The conference report also provides additional trade preferences for 
Nepal in order to promote economic recovery in the aftermath of the 
devastating earthquake last year. With this legislation, we will also 
take significant steps to promote small business exports and improve 
tariff classifications relating to footwear and outerwear.
  Finally, I want to acknowledge that a number of my colleagues--as 
well as businesses and job creators around the country--had hoped that 
the conference report on the Customs bill would include a 
reauthorization of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bills or MTBs. I shared my 
colleagues' desire to pass MTBs with this vehicle. As you will recall, 
a revised MTB process was, after all, passed by the Senate in the 
original version of the Customs bill.
  There are a handful of procedural concerns that complicate this 
issue--particularly over in the House--that made it difficult to 
adequately address MTBs in this conference report. However, the 
conference report does include a strong sense-of-Congress statement 
reaffirming our shared commitment to advancing MTB legislation in a 
process that provides robust consultation and is consistent with both 
House and Senate rules.
  And, on top of that, I just want to reaffirm my own commitment, as 
the chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over this issue, 
to find a process that both the House and the Senate can agree on and 
get MTBs over the finish line. Our businesses and manufacturers that 
benefit from MTBs have waited too long for Congress to act on this 
matter, and I am going to do whatever I can to forge a path forward.
  Let me just say that I am very pleased with the substance of this 
conference report. It has been a long road to get us here, but in my 
view, it has been worth it.
  I will have many people to thank in the coming days as we debate--and 
hopefully pass--the conference report here in the Senate. For now, I 
specifically want to thank the vice chair of the conference committee, 
Chairman Kevin Brady, for his work on both the committee itself and on 
the substance of the report. I also want to thank the ranking member of 
the Finance Committee, Senator Wyden, for his efforts to ensure that 
our final product was truly bipartisan.
  This is a good bill. It is not perfect, by any means. But once again, 
it provides what I think are strong outcomes on many key policy 
priorities.
  Both the House and the Senate came into the conference with their own 
set of demands, which required some compromise. However, throughout our 
negotiations, I worked extremely hard to preserve the Finance 
Committee's contributions to the Customs bill and to advance the 
Senate's priorities on this legislation. And in that regard, I think we 
can all be pleased with the overall outcome, even if some compromises 
had to be made.
  I know that some of our members have specific objections to some of 
the individual compromises we had to make in order to get the deal 
done. I certainly don't want to minimize anyone's concerns. Instead, I 
will just say that this comes with the territory of passing legislation 
that tries to reconcile differences.
  As a whole, I believe this legislation provides a path on the Customs 
bill that members of both parties can get behind. I am hoping we can 
get past tomorrow's cloture vote and final passage and send the bill to 
the President's desk in short order.
  I urge all of my colleagues to work with us to make sure that 
happens.

                          ____________________