Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) has introduced a plan to end the United States’ decades-long, job-killing free trade status with China as multinational corporations in the semiconductor industry plead with the federal government to keep open their access to the Chinese market.
This week, Banks introduced the “Ending Normal Trade Relations with China Act” which would effectively end U.S. free trade with China, thus imposing high tariffs on Chinese imports. The bill was filed in the Senate by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) in March.
“Decades ago, politicians in Washington gave Chinese manufacturers a leg up over American companies, which has been disastrous for our national security, economy and tens of thousands of Hoosier workers,” Banks said in a statement:
Winning the competition with China is my top priority in Congress, and to be successful abroad, we need to be strong at home. Our bill would fix a serious mistake and stop privileging our greatest enemy at the expense of America’s working class. [Emphasis added]
Charles Benoit, an attorney with the Coalition for a Prosperous America, said the legislation ought to be part of any trade package put forward by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, suggesting it would bring in about $100 billion in annual tariff revenue paid by China.
In 2001, China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the backing of former President Bush’s administration and was subsequently awarded “permanent normal trade relations status” by the U.S. after congressional approval.
As a result of authorizing U.S. free trade with China, nearly four million American jobs have been eliminated from the U.S. economy from 2001 to 2018 — including almost three million domestic manufacturing jobs, as multinational corporations readily shipped jobs overseas without penalties from the government.
During that same period, at least 50,000 American manufacturing plants closed down.
Months ago, Scott Paul with the Alliance for American Manufacturing told the House Select Committee on China that ending U.S. free trade with China is the first step to decoupling and ending a chapter of job-killing globalization.
The Banks-Hawley legislation serves as a landmark plan that puts the Republican Party on the side of the nation’s workers after decades of taking the side of big business that profits enormously from U.S. free trade with China.
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ted Budd (R-NC), Rick Scott (R-FL), and J.D. Vance (R-OH) have filed similar legislation called the “China Trade Relations Act” to end China’s normal trade relations status. Instead, presidential administrations would choose whether or not to authorize China’s free trade status with the U.S.
Meanwhile, multinational corporations represented by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) are lobbying President Joe Biden to keep open access to the Chinese market, claiming any restrictions on U.S. semiconductor sales to China “risk diminishing … competitiveness, disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty, and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China.”
The SIA represents powerful and politically-connected corporations like IBM, Intel, Micron, Texas Instruments, Samsung, Toshiba, Honeywell, and Nikon, among others.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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