Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015--Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I thank Chairman Hatch for his good work and his very gracious comments.

I note our colleagues have been very patient, so I ask unanimous consent that following my remarks, Senator Alexander be recognized for 7 minutes and, immediately after Senator Alexander, Senator Stabenow be recognized for up to 10 minutes.

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Mr. WYDEN. Colleagues, this bill is about coming down hard on the trade cheats who are ripping off American jobs.

The truth is, past trade policies were often too old, too slow, or too weak for our country to fight back. This legislation says those days are over. The legislation ushers in a new day and a fresh, modern approach--a tougher approach--to enforcing trade laws that start moving our Nation to a policy that I call getting trade done right. It is about creating tough trade enforcement policies, seeing them through, and standing up to anybody who tries to get around them. No matter how a Senator chooses to vote on a particular new trade agreement, I hope that stronger trade enforcement and fighting back against the trade cheats would be a priority for every Senator.

The reality is, the amount of cheating that is going on is staggering. It takes your breath away. We saw it a couple of years ago when we set up a sting operation and in effect invited the cheaters to have at it. We were deluged with those who wanted to skirt the laws, use shell games, sophisticated schemes, and fraudulent records to evade duties. You would smile at some of the inventiveness involved if we didn't see how painful it was for the American companies getting ripped off this way.

One of the most common schemes--one of the biggest loopholes involves something called merchandise laundering. In effect, when a company gets busted for violating the trade laws, the countervailing duty laws, in effect they go to another country and slap a label on it and are able to skirt the laws. Because his companies that make honey were victims of this, at one point Senator Schumer, my colleague on the Finance Committee, said: What is going on is honey laundering, but it is not very sweet for the people who are getting ripped off. That is what we seek to change.

I could thank a lot of colleagues of both political parties for their good work here, but I just want to single out a few on our side. I know Senator Hatch is going to say more about colleagues on his side.

I particularly want to praise Senator Brown. Senator Brown led the fight repeatedly to close outlandish loopholes that allow products made with slave and child labor to be imported into the United States. What the old law basically says is that economics trumped human rights--that if there was an economic reason for using slave and child labor, you could do it. We have closed that loophole. There was bipartisan support for it, and I commend Senator Brown for this.

Senator Stabenow made a successful effort to have a more coordinated approach so that the left hand and the right hand would know what was being done in terms of trade enforcement. We now have a trade enforcement center that is going to do that.

Senator Cantwell worked to ensure that we have an important new trust fund--a trust fund for trade enforcement. It ought to be a priority to lock in all of the funds necessary to help protect our workers and businesses.

Senator Shaheen led the fight in order to ensure that smaller businesses had a bigger seat at the table in terms of the effort to reach new markets. I commend her for it.

Senator Bennet in particular did very good work with respect to trade enforcement in the environmental area. The package directs the trade negotiators to act against illegal fishing and the trade of stolen timber--something the Senator from Arkansas and I know a great deal about. I am also very pleased because Senator Bennet and others worked hard to ensure that this legislation goes further than ever before to fight the currency manipulators and stop them from undercutting our workers and our businesses.

At the end of the day, Democrats and Republicans came together. There were spirited debates about trade agreements and whether to pass new ones. What this is all about is just the opposite--just the opposite-- of a new trade agreement. This is about making sure we get tough and enforce the laws on the books for what we already have. There shouldn't be any dispute about that, and, certainly in the Finance Committee, Democrats and Republicans were united.

Finally, I want to make one last point. I am glad the distinguished Senator from Tennessee is on the floor. I am very pleased that there has been an agreement with the majority leader, the Senator from Tennessee, and the senior Senator from Illinois so that the ideas Senator Alexander wants are going to get heard on the floor of the Senate. His interests are going to be heard and discussed fully. I want to assure him that there aren't going to be any kind of procedural delays and objections when that is done. He is going to have a chance to have his concerns heard and a vote on them, based on what I have been told about the agreement with the majority leader.

In this bill, there is a chance for the Congress to finish the job of something I think is also important, and that is to say on a permanent basis--a permanent basis--we are not going to have regressive taxes on Internet access and discrimination, particularly against working families for whom, if there were regressive taxes on working families who rely on Internet access to get information about education and employment opportunities, we would harm those families at a time when they are already walking on an economic tightrope, balancing their food bill against their fuel bills and rent bill against energy costs. We shouldn't have regressive taxes on Internet access. With this legislation, we can ensure that will not happen. It has been a bipartisan effort for nearly 20 years, and with this we can say no to those regressive taxes as a result of the work that was done. As I noted, the concerns Senator Alexander wishes to raise are going to be heard in the future as well.

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I agree with Senator Hatch. That is the intent of the provision amending 19 U.S.C., section 1501.

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