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

Floor Speech

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Mr. IVEY. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 9151, the Protecting American Industry and Labor from International Trade Crimes Act.

As the complexities of international trade intensify, abusive practices and circumvention of trade rules escalate commensurately. Trade crimes impair our economy, disadvantage our workers, disrespect our consumers, and offend our national sensibilities.

To halt these practices, we must reinforce America's capacity to identify, investigate, and interdict these crimes and empower the Department of Justice to prosecute the perpetrators.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to co-lead and be an original cosponsor of H.R. 9151, which is bipartisan legislation that would achieve these objectives.

I commend my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, Representatives Hinson, Krishnamoorthi, Moolenaar, and all the other co-leads and cosponsors, for joining together to confront this challenge.

I especially appreciate my colleagues' receptivity to my suggestions about the trade crime unit's structure, concentrating on a national team based at Main Justice with the ability to deploy experts, as needed, to ports of entry around the country where trade crimes are occurring.

By focusing resources at Main Justice, we will expand our core competencies in confronting these crimes nationwide so that we will retain the upper hand, even if perpetrators redirect their activities to a different location in the United States.

This bill would establish a trade crimes unit at DOJ to take aim against a litany of crimes that are prevalent in international trade, including crimes resulting from products made by use of forced labor, sellers abusing the de minimis exemption, foreign exporters evading duties and tariffs by shipping products through third-party nations, and products that violate safety and health rules.

By creating and funding a trade crimes unit at DOJ, this bill would equip our country with expert investigators and attorneys who are dedicated to safeguarding our people, our jobs, and our economy.

Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this important legislation.
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