Download Production Quality Footage of Sen. Brown’s Exchange HERE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In Case You Missed It: yesterday, during a Senate Finance Committee hearing titled “Supply Chain Resiliency: Alleviating Backlogs and Strengthening Long-Term Security,” U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) highlighted the ways trade enforcement is crucial to speeding up supply chains and bringing them home to the U.S. During the hearing, Brown questioned Mr. Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), about the ways in which lobbying for bad trade policy and tax policy resulted in corporations outsourcing production to other countries so they can pay workers less, resulting in a decimated domestic supply chain and lower wages for American workers whose jobs weren’t shipped overseas.
“We ask American companies to compete against non-market economies like China that use unfair trade practices,” said Brown at the hearing. “I blame China for sure, but I blame U.S. companies that betrayed this country and lobbied this Congress and the politicians that went along. Bank of America said, and this is pretty amazing, that stock prices on Wall Street are more likely to go up when companies invest in China’s economy than when they invest in America’s economy. That’s not some progressive from Northern Ohio talking, that’s Bank of America talking.”
Brown asked Mr. Paul why trade enforcement is an essential investment in American workers and American innovation.
“The reason for trade enforcement is that we have to have a rules-based system that we know our private businesses can count on. That also sends a market signal that if they invest in the United States, then we will stand up to unfair trade practices that might affect them in our market, a third market or with respect to China and other countries,” said Mr. Paul at the hearing. “The problem has been that a lot of the importers have figured a way around these laws over the years – and they are very crafty. It’s like whack-a-mole at the carnival. If you put one trade enforcement measure up, they will figure out another way around it though circumvention or slight alteration of the product as I know you all know.
“The Level the Playing Field Act 2.0 builds on a bipartisan effort from 2015 to keep up with these whack-a-mole strategies that a lot of the importers who engage in unfair trade practices have,” Mr. Paul continued.
“I think it is an essential part of competitive legislation because we can invest whatever we want but if we don’t have a level playing field for them those efforts will be for naught or the impact for them will be dramatically diminished,” Mr. Paul concluded.
Download production quality footage of Brown’s exchange HERE.
Brown has been leading the fight to pass legislation that will support American manufacturing and help the United States compete with China.
The America COMPETES Act contains Brown’s Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act as well as the CHIPS for America Act. The package will make a once-in-a-generation investment in American science, technology and innovation to help the U.S. preserve its competitive edge.
Last June, the Senate passed the United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (USICA), which invests in American workers and our nation’s long-term competitiveness by shoring up critical industries like semiconductors, which are facing a global shortage. In February, the House of Representatives passed the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act of 2022, the House version of USICA.
Following the passage of the House version of USICA, Brown and four of his Senate colleagues sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urging them to prioritize the pro-worker, pro-environment trade provisions bill as the two chambers begin to conference the legislation.
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Source: brown.senate.gov
