Expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should not be a signatory to any agreement or protocol with respect to the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, or any other bilateral or multilateral trade negotiations, that adopts any proposal to lessen the effectiveness of domestic and international disciplines on unfair trade or safeguard provisions, including certain proposals, and would lessen in any manner U.S. ability to enforce rigorously its trade laws, including the antidumping, countervailing duty, and safeguard laws.
Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) U.S. trade laws and international rules appropriately serve the public interest by offsetting injurious unfair trade, and that further "balancing modifications" or other similar provisions are unnecessary and would add to the complexity and difficulty of achieving relief against injurious unfair trade practices; and (2) the United States should ensure that any new agreement relating to international disciplines on unfair trade or safeguard provisions fully rectifies and corrects decisions by WTO dispute settlement panels or the Appellate Body that have unjustifiably and negatively impacted, or threaten to negatively impact, U.S. law or practice, including a law or practice with respect to foreign dumping or subsidization.
[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 55 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. CON. RES. 55
Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the conditions for the
United States to become a signatory to any multilateral agreement on
trade resulting from the World Trade Organization's Doha Development
Agenda Round.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 29, 2005
Mr. Craig (for himself, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Baucus, Ms.
Snowe, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Crapo, Mrs. Lincoln, Mr. DeWine, Mr. Reed, Mr.
Allen, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Specter, Mr. Levin, Mr. Voinovich, Mr. Byrd, Mrs.
Dole, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Shelby, Ms. Collins, Mr. Sarbanes, Mr. Graham,
Mr. Reid, Mr. Coleman, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Santorum, and Mr. Durbin)
submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Finance
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the conditions for the
United States to become a signatory to any multilateral agreement on
trade resulting from the World Trade Organization's Doha Development
Agenda Round.
Whereas members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are currently engaged in a
round of trade negotiations known as the Doha Development Agenda (Doha
Round);
Whereas the Doha Round includes negotiations aimed at clarifying and improving
disciplines under the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (Antidumping Agreement) and
the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (Subsidies
Agreement);
Whereas the WTO Ministerial Declaration adopted on November 14, 2001 (WTO Paper
No. WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1) specifically provides that the Doha Round
negotiations are to preserve the ``basic concepts, principles and
effectiveness'' of the Antidumping Agreement and the Subsidies
Agreement;
Whereas in section 2102(b)(14)(A) of the Bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority
Act of 2002, the Congress mandated that the principal negotiating
objective of the United States with respect to trade remedy laws was to
``preserve the ability of the United States to enforce rigorously its
trade laws . . . and avoid agreements that lessen the effectiveness of
domestic and international disciplines on unfair trade, especially
dumping and subsidies'';
Whereas the countries that have been the most persistent and egregious violators
of international fair trade rules are engaged in an aggressive effort to
significantly weaken the disciplines provided in the Antidumping
Agreement and the Subsidies Agreement and undermine the ability of the
United States to effectively enforce its trade remedy laws;
Whereas chronic violators of fair trade disciplines have put forward proposals
that would substantially weaken United States trade remedy laws and
practices, including mandating that unfair trade orders terminate after
a set number of years even if unfair trade and injury are likely to
recur, mandating that trade remedy duties reflect less than the full
margin of dumping or subsidization, mandating higher de minimis levels
of unfair trade, making cumulation of the effects of imports from
multiple countries more difficult in unfair trade investigations,
outlawing the critical practice of ``zeroing'' in antidumping
investigations, mandating the weighing of causes, and mandating other
provisions that make it more difficult to prove injury;
Whereas United States trade remedy laws have already been significantly weakened
by numerous unjust and activist WTO dispute settlement decisions which
have created new obligations to which the United States never agreed;
Whereas trade remedy laws remain a critical resource for American manufacturers,
agricultural producers, and aquacultural producers in responding to
closed foreign markets, subsidized imports, and other forms of unfair
trade, particularly in the context of the challenges currently faced by
these vital sectors of the United States economy;
Whereas the United States had a current account trade deficit of approximately
$668,000,000,000 in 2004, including a trade deficit of almost
$162,000,000,000 with China alone, as well as a trade deficit of
$40,000,000,000 in advanced technology;
Whereas United States manufacturers have lost over 3,000,000 jobs since June
2000, and United States manufacturing employment is currently at its
lowest level since 1950;
Whereas many industries critical to United States national security are at
severe risk from unfair foreign competition; and
Whereas the Congress strongly believes that the proposals put forward by
countries seeking to undermine trade remedy disciplines in the Doha
Round would result in serious harm to the United States economy,
including significant job losses and trade disadvantages: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring),
That it is the sense of the Congress that--
(1) the United States should not be a signatory to any
agreement or protocol with respect to the Doha Development
Round of the World Trade Organization negotiations, or any
other bilateral or multilateral trade negotiations, that--
(A) adopts any proposal to lessen the effectiveness
of domestic and international disciplines on unfair
trade or safeguard provisions, including proposals--
(i) mandating that unfair trade orders
terminate after a set number of years even if
unfair trade and injury are likely to recur;
(ii) mandating that trade remedy duties
reflect less than the full margin of dumping or
subsidization;
(iii) mandating higher de minimis levels of
unfair trade;
(iv) making cumulation of the effects of
imports from multiple countries more difficult
in unfair trade investigations;
(v) outlawing the critical practice of
``zeroing'' in antidumping investigations; or
(vi) mandating the weighing of causes or
other provisions making it more difficult to
prove injury in unfair trade cases; and
(B) would lessen in any manner the ability of the
United States to enforce rigorously its trade laws,
including the antidumping, countervailing duty, and
safeguard laws;
(2) the United States trade laws and international rules
appropriately serve the public interest by offsetting injurious
unfair trade, and that further ``balancing modifications'' or
other similar provisions are unnecessary and would add to the
complexity and difficulty of achieving relief against injurious
unfair trade practices; and
(3) the United States should ensure that any new agreement
relating to international disciplines on unfair trade or
safeguard provisions fully rectifies and corrects decisions by
WTO dispute settlement panels or the Appellate Body that have
unjustifiably and negatively impacted, or threaten to
negatively impact, United States law or practice, including a
law or practice with respect to foreign dumping or
subsidization.
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S10761)
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