Pascrell Hails Massive Trade Bill to Curb China Abuses

Landmark package includes Pascrell, DeLauro, Spartz, Fitzpatrick legislation to strengthen US supply chains and halt offshoring of jobs and capacity to foreign adversaries

PATERSON, NJ – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, today praised the unveiling of the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (America COMPETES Act), which includes the American Worker and Trade Competitiveness Act, a comprehensive package of House trade legislation aimed at meeting the growing global threat posed by the increasing hostility of the Chinese Communist Party. The legislation includes the National Critical Capabilities Defense Act (NCCDA) (H.R. 6329), bipartisan and bicameral legislation offered by Pascrell and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), the Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, Victoria Spartz (R-IN-05), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-01) to strengthen security of the American supply chains and prevent the offshoring of America’s critical production to nations including China.

“I am gratified the package being introduced today includes our legislation to strengthen our frayed supply chains and help pull American jobs and stop our industrial might from being shipped abroad to foreign adversaries and nonmarket economies. Our bi-partisan bill empowers an United States Trade Representative led committee to review specific activities flowing from the U.S. into companies connected to adversarial governments that are developing dual use technologies. The Chinese Communist Party climbed America’s back to economic power and is now using that power to commit genocide, crush democratic norms, empower dictators, undermine workers, rig the world economy, and threaten America’s allies. Putin’s Russian Federation has also leached off America’s economic might to sow discord in the world,” said Rep. Pascrell. “I am thankful to work with Reps. DeLauro, Spartz, Fitzpatrick to ensure this bill was included in the House package and look forward to fighting with them and Senators Casey and Cornyn to get this across the finish line. Congress is moving with urgency to meet the growing threat and this legislation is comprehensive and deadly serious.”

The NCCDA would establish a comprehensive approach to ensure the United States has greater visibility into supply chain vulnerabilities and tools for the federal government to use to respond decisively in times of crisis. Specifically, the bill would create a committee led by Office Of The United States Trade Representative to review and guard supply chains to protect critical industries important to national security. The committee would have the ability to review and recommend the President take remedial action to guard against supply chain disruptions that includes but is not limited to supporting domestic industry by increasing research and developing investment and utilization of manufacturing institutes. More details about the legislation can be found here.

The comprehensive package includes several trade related pieces of legislation focused on supporting U.S. workers, holding China accountable for trade abuses, improving trade remedies for domestic industries, and investing in domestic manufacturing to support good paying jobs. The bill includes robust improvements to the lapsed Trade Adjustment Assistance program to ensure workers obtain federal assistance after their jobs are impacted by trade, including Pascrell authored legislation the Improved Access to Trade Adjustment Assistance Act (H.R.5258) that was inspired by Mondelez closing its cookie factory in North Jersey, terminating approximately 600 jobs. The bill also includes legislation to crack down on abuses in De Minimis shipments from China and update our antidumping and countervailing duty laws.

On January 20, 2022, Chairmen Pascrell and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-03), the Chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, wrote to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, calling out the carmaker for opening a showroom in Xinjiang Province, the heart of the CCP’s atrocities against the Uyghur peoples. Their letter further implored Tesla to set a better example against the CCP’s crimes.

The 2021 U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s annual report to Congress found that “nearly 85 percent of [U.S. business] respondents are not considering relocating manufacturing or sourcing from China.” Pascrell and Blumenauer urged Musk that “[t]his figure and requisite corporate attitudes must change if we are to stand in opposition to forced labor and human rights abuses that are tantamount to genocide.”

Chairman Pascrell is one of the leading critics in Congress of the Chinese Community Party and for decades has sounded the alarm of the offshoring of American jobs overseas. Pascrell is the sponsor of the bipartisan American PPE Supply Chain Integrity Act to help end America’s over-reliance on personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies from China and other foreign nations.