Tax Convention with Chile
Floor Speech
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Mr. MARKEY. Putin's war of aggression cannot stand. And I am perfectly willing to push back on Russia, but we have to do it the right way.
I sincerely respect the Senator from Alaska's concerns about Russian seafood imports. I believe it is unfair and improper that Russia has banned American seafood imports since 2014. And I appreciate the Senator's willingness to work with me on his proposal last year that would have created an immediate disruption to the seafood supply chain and to instead provide more time for our processors who purchase more than 80 percent of their seafood from Alaska to be able to meet demand with supplies from other markets. However, the bill Senator Sullivan is trying to pass through live by unanimous consent today--which has not yet been considered in the Senate Finance Committee to which it was referred--has raised other questions from seafood processors and from my colleagues in New England in terms of workability.
The Senator was able to work with my staff to resolve the issues in his proposal last year, and I thank him for that. But this new proposal has new provisions that will need some time for us to work out.
We actually succeeded last year, but now we need the time to do the same thing, and we have to make sure that it has workability for New England.
The bill would block the import of Russian seafood that has been substantially transformed in another country. It is unclear if U.S. Customs and Border Protection has the full capacity to determine and enforce where seafood comes from before it has been substantially transformed, since this new proposal would go against how seafood origin has been considered under longstanding U.S. law and defined through the U.S. Treasury Department.
So, as a result, while Customs and Border Protection attempts this difficult enforcement task, processors could see major disruption. Workers could lose their jobs. Consumer goods costs for Americans could rise significantly.
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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, again, the Senator from Alaska and I are friends. His father is a Sullivan. My mother is a Sullivan. Sullivans are very intelligent people, by the way.
So, last year, Senator Sullivan brought a bill out onto the floor. We had concerns coming from the Massachusetts fishing community--New Bedford, Gloucester, famous fishing ports, still today competing with Alaska for the title in the United States for the largest in the country. And there were some concerns. We called a time- out on the field, and we worked out all of those issues. That was round 1.
Now, yesterday, the Senator from Alaska has a new bill with new provisions in it. In addition to the provisions from last year that we worked out, there are all new provisions. And it is not a rope-a-dope-- though, obviously, anything that uses a Muhammad Ali-created concept is a great honor to have attached to us, but we don't see this as rope-a- dope. This is more just round 2. We finished round 1. Now we are on round 2.
A whole new bill, new language, and, again, the same thing. We are willing to work with you, but we can't solve it in 24 hours. My staff and yours, sitting down with other members of the New England delegation, we can get together and find a commonsense pathway through it. But, right now, Gorton's of Gloucester is very concerned about this bill. One firm has 450 workers, another has 350 workers, and we have dozens of other companies up in Massachusetts with employees that are potentially jeopardized by this bill.
So I am objecting. But I am objecting and inviting the Senator from Alaska to, again, engage once again in a good-faith negotiation, and we are willing to do so. Then, at the completion of that, we can again agree and move forward.
But I am objecting mainly because of this cascade of concerns that are coming from the food processing industry, the seafood processing industry, in Massachusetts, all across New England, led by Gorton's of Gloucester but many, many others who don't have the same kind of national and international reputation but who feel greatly jeopardized by the language in this bill. And that is the reason that I am objecting while simultaneously saying: It is not a rope-a-dope. Let's sit down. Let's try to work out the differences.
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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, to my friend, again, from Alaska, we are not engaging in a rope-a-dope at all. At the same time, we don't want to be a punching bag. We don't want the Massachusetts fishing industry, through this processing industry, to get sucker-punched with a bill on only 24 hours' notice.
We are more than willing, again, to work with you in order to resolve these issues, and my friend knows that over the years, that is what we have done on issue after issue.
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