May 13,2015

Wyden Floor Statement on the Importance of Trade Enforcement

WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor, after striking a deal to ensure important trade enforcement legislation would receive a vote before moving forward on other trade legislation:

I want to thank the Senate Majority Leader for working with us in a constructive fashion to make it possible for all of the vital parts of the trade package to be considered, and I look forward to working closely with all my colleagues going forward. Through the cooperation of the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader, trade enforcement will be the first bill to be debated, and in doing so, it drives homes yesterday’s message from 13 pro-trade Democrats who said robust enforcement of our trade law is a prerequisite to a modern trade policy.

In making this the first topic for debate, the Senate is making the long-overdue recognition that strong trade enforcement has got to be in the forefront, not in the rear. It’s also a recognition that the 1990’s NAFTA trade playbook is being set aside.

And the reality is, expanding trade and enforcing our trade laws are two sides of the same coin. I say that because of what I hear back at home when I hold community meetings in counties all around Oregon. Someone will often stand up and say, “I hear there’s talk about a new trade deal - how about first enforcing the laws that are on the books?”

That’s why pro-trade Democrats weighed in yesterday right at the outset of this debate to talk about how important trade enforcement was to what I call “trade done right,” or a modern trade policy that works for America’s middle-class. So now I’d like to give a brief history of how we got to this point.

A few weeks ago, the Finance Committee met and passed a bipartisan package of four bills -- more than a year in the making -- that would throw out the 1990s NAFTA playbook on trade.

The first, on Trade Promotion Authority, helps rid our trade policies of so much secrecy. The reason this is so important is because the first thing people say about trade is: “what’s all the excessive secrecy about?” If you believe strongly in trade and want more of it, why would you want to have more needless secrecy that makes people more convinced that things are being hidden from view. There are some dramatic changes in that area in this bill.

Another strengthens and expands the support system for America’s workers known as Trade Adjustment Assistance. This is to make sure trade-affected workers have a springboard to a new set of job opportunities.

The third finally puts our trade enforcement into high gear to crack down on trade cheats and protect American workers and exports. The reality is trade enforcement is a jobs bill. It’s protecting jobs and that’s why it’s so important. And the fourth renews trade preference programs that are crucial to both U.S. employers and developing countries. Taken together, these four bills form a package of trade policies that will create high-wage, high-skill jobs in my state and across the nation.

As I have said, if you want to explain modern trade policy in a sentence, what you’d say is this is the kind of approach that helps us grow things in America, makes things in America, add value to them in America, and then ship them somewhere.

I want to take a moment, as the Senate opens debate, to talk about why the enforcement provisions are so vital, and why addressing this issue is the perfect first step in the legislative process.

The trade enforcement bill is a jobs bill, and it’s a cornerstone of the new approach to trade that will reject the status quo. As the president said – to his credit – during the State of the Union address, “past trade deals haven't always lived up to the hype.” And I believe a lot of that can be blamed on sub-par enforcement. That’s because the same old enforcement tools from the NAFTA era and decades prior aren’t getting the job done in 2015.

Our competitors overseas use shell companies, fraudulent records, and sophisticated schemes to play cat and mouse games with U.S. customs authorities. They intimidate American firms into relocating factories or surrendering intellectual property. They spy on our companies and trade enforcers to steal secrets and block our efforts at holding them accountable.

To mask their activities, they hide their paper trails and engage in outright fraud. And there are many other examples of modern challenges I could cite. 

Not only does our trade enforcement need to catch up to these schemes, it has to stay ahead of the game. And that’s why this bipartisan bill will take enforcement to a higher level.

This bill raises the bar for all of our trade enforcers – whether it’s the Customs agent at the border checking inbound shipments, the Commerce Department investigator looking into an unfair trade petition, or the USTR lawyer following up on possible violations of trade agreements. I’ll quickly tick through a few of this legislation’s component parts.

A proposal I fought to include will help Customs crack down on foreign companies that try to get around the rules by hiding their identities and sending their products on hard-to-trace shipping routes. Another will close a shameful loophole that allows products made with forced and child labor to be sold in the U.S.

A third will build what I call an “unfair trade alert” to help identify when American jobs and exports are under threat before the damage is done. With this early warning system in place, the warning bells will ring earlier and more loudly than ever before when a country attempts to undercut an American industry like China recently tried with solar panels.

I think that’s especially important because when I’m home and listening to workers and businesses talk about trade enforcement, they say “it just gets to us too late.” By the time somebody in Washington, D.C. is talking about enforcing the trade laws, the lights have gone out at the plant, workers lives have been shattered, and their communities is feeling pain from one end to the other. So the point of an early warning system is to use technology and access to information that can send the signal earlier and more clearly.

Fourth, for the first time in decades, Congress will set clear enforcement priorities -- with a focus on jobs and growth -- and will build real accountability and follow-through into our enforcement system.

Finally, a proposal from Senator Brown will go a long way to ensuring that our trade enforcers use the full strength of our anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws to fight unfair tactics.

I made it clear months ago, when Senator Hatch and I began working on this package, that strengthening enforcement was at the very top of the list of my priorities. Because it’s not credible to say you’re pushing for a new trade agreement if people don’t think you’re going to enforce the laws that are already on the books.

The Finance Committee passed this enforcement bill with a voice vote. I am pleased that the Senate is ready to begin debate on this bill, as well as the overall package, and I hope the bipartisan progress continues. 

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