Bipartisan Bill Reintroduced to Change Trade Remedy Laws

Lead sponsors Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., were joined by six Democrats and five Republicans in the Senate, and House lead sponsors Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and Rep. Bill Johnson, R- Ohio, were joined by one Democrat and one Republican. The bill, called Leveling the Playing Field Act 2.0, was introduced June 7.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he hasn't talked to Brown about his plan, but expressed openness to scheduling a hearing on the bill. "I've been supportive of it," he said June 8 at the Capitol.

Brown, in a hallway interview, said he expected Wyden would hold a hearing to explore the bill's impact. "Wyden is not just cooperative, he is eager to do better trade enforcement. We can do the Chips Act, but if we don't enforce these trade laws, we lose so much. This is the first president that's truly gotten serious about enforcing these trade laws."

The Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill in the last Congress, saying these changes to AD/CVD procedures and authorities could drive up prices and favor a group of businesses "at the expense of a much wider swath of industries employing many more American workers," which would undermine competitiveness (see 2112020053).

As summarized by Sewell, the law would:

• Create a new type of AD/CVD investigation, called a successive investigation, which improves the effectiveness of the trade remedy law to combat repeat offenders by making it easier for petitioners to bring new cases when production moves to another country.
• Provide expedited timelines for successive investigations and new factors for the International Trade Commission to consider in those investigations.
• Provide Commerce the authority to apply CVD law to subsidies provided by a government to a company operating in a different country.
• Clarify the process and timeline for anti-circumvention investigations.
• Specify deadlines for preliminary and final determinations.

Commerce already has proposed a regulation to allow CVD cases when a country is subsidizing production outside its territory (see 2305180051), but this would codify that approach.

In a press release announcing the reintroduction, Brown said: “China is always coming up with new ways to distort the global market, cheating Ohio companies out of business and Ohio workers out of jobs. Our bill will help the U.S. fight back with new, innovative tools, allowing us to crack down on repeat offenders and serial cheaters."

In the release, Brown said about half of trade remedy cases are for steel, but said they also affect engines, furniture, plywood, pipe, solar panels, truck trailer chassis, magnesium, paper, wood moldings, kitchen cabinets, quartz countertops, tires and other products.

In the press release from Sewell's office, Johnson said: "China’s communist regime continues taking deliberate steps that are hurting American workers and our economy by dumping steel, aluminum, and other products on the global markets with no repercussions. That must end. This bipartisan legislation will hold China accountable for these actions by ensuring that U.S. industries and the Department of Commerce have needed tools to seek relief from China’s illegal actions."

Sewell said Level the Playing Field Act 2.0 "would strengthen our trade remedy laws and push back against China’s egregious and unfair trade practices."

While Johnson is in the majority party, he is not on the Ways and Means Committee; however, both Sewell and co-sponsor Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, are members of the committee.