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Protecting American Industry and Labor From International Trade Crimes Act of 2024

Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 3, 2024
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. MOOLENAAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of Congresswoman Hinson's bill, the Protecting American Industry and Labor from International Trade Crimes Act.

Today, Chinese companies habitually violate U.S. trade laws. They go around our country's tariffs, and this harms U.S. manufacturers, undermines our workers, and diminishes American competitiveness.

Last August, during a roundtable in Wisconsin, the Select Committee on the CCP heard from Americans across industries on how Chinese companies are breaking the law and decimating their operations. It is clear from these testimonies that the civil penalties rarely imposed on companies caught circumventing U.S. trade laws were not enough to stop CCP-sponsored trade fraud.

Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi, Congresswoman Hinson, and the bipartisan members of the select committee recommended last year that Congress pass legislation to criminally enforce trade crimes as a true deterrent to the CCP's coordinated economic coercion.

Today's legislation takes that recommendation and turns it into action. We have solicited feedback from industry, worked closely with the Department of Justice, and coordinated with the standing committees here in the House to develop this robust legislation before us today.

As the House considers this bill, I am committed to working with my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to ensure the prosecutors hired to criminally enforce our trade laws are fully funded. In the face of China's economic onslaught against our country, we must ensure those prosecutors have the resources they need to enforce tariffs, protect American workers, and stop the CCP from taking advantage of the United States.

I again thank Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi and also Representative Hinson for their leadership and for working with committee staff on this key bill. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and support American manufacturing.

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