AHTRA ELNASHAR
WASHINGTON (TND) – In a new report, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party issued 150 recommendations for federal action to fortify the American economy and put it in a stronger position to outcompete China.
In a new report, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party issued 150 recommendations for federal action to fortify the American economy and put it in a stronger position to outcompete China. (TND)
The report says, “The United States lacks a contingency plan for the economic and financial impacts of conflict with the (People's Republic of China)," and prioritizes a diversification of supply chains and a crackdown on illicit trade practices.
The committee called for a reset of the U.S.-China trade relationship, restrictions on the flow of U.S. investment and technology that fuels China's military modernization and human rights abuses, as well as steps to make sure the U.S. leads the world in technological advances like artificial intelligence.
Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., called the recommendations a "roadmap for a new, ambitious economic policy."
“We can only outcompete the CCP by being the best version of ourselves internally and externally," Krishnamoorthi said.
The report passed almost unanimously out of committee on Tuesday.
“I think what the CCP fears the most is bipartisan support against them," Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Illinois said.
Over the seven months committee members spent crafting the recommendations, some members, like Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., expressed concerns about relying too much on taxing imports to shield American imports from foreign competition. He said "there is much good" in the recommendations, but ultimately did not vote to approve the report.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., who voted in favor of the report, said American supply chains are not yet resilient enough to withstand trade policies he says are necessary.
This risk has worried the agriculture industry. More than a dozen stakeholders, including the American Soybean Association, U.S. Dairy Export Council, and Farmers for Free Trade sent a letter to the committee urging them to weigh the impacts of recommendations. The letter cited an Oxford Economics report that modeled the impact of a U.S. tariff increase with Chinese policy retaliation. It projected a nearly $2 trillion hit to U.S. GDP over five years and a loss of more than 800,000 jobs.
To protect farmers from retaliation, the committee said the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Trade Representative should determine alternative markets for agriculture exports and that Congress should consider appropriating funds to offset costs borne by American workers.
A separate recommendation for tariff reform is meant to prevent products made with forced labor from being sold to the U.S. market: The committee wants Congress to reduce the "de minimis" price threshold that currently exempts items valued at less than $800 from duty.
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