Genesee News

WASHINGTON— Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-08) On May 24, 2023, spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in support of his legislation, H.J.Res. 39, to support Michigan and American workers and hold those who violate U.S. trade laws accountable.

A video of his remarks can be found here.

In January, Congressman Kildee introduced legislation to reverse the Biden administration’s suspension of tariffs on solar imports from China and four Southeast Asian countries found to have violated U.S. trade laws. While both the House and Senate passed Kildee’s legislation with strong bipartisan support, President Biden vetoed the resolution last week.

Congressman Kildee’s remarks, as delivered on the House floor, are below:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank my friend for yielding.

I rise in support of this veto override resolution to support the Michigan and American workers and to hold those who violate U.S. trade laws accountable.

I’ll be clear, I am proud to have worked with President Biden and his administration on important new laws—new laws like the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act—which I had a hand in writing. These legislative victories have helped to bring back critical manufacturing and to create good-paying American jobs.

But on this particular issue, the President and I disagree.

For far too long, bad trade deals and unfair trade practices from other countries have hurt American workers, and I believe that we need to enforce our current trade laws and strengthen our ability to fight unfair trade practices.

When companies explicitly endeavor to evade, to circumvent, our trade laws, there’s no choice. We have to hold them accountable. That’s why Congress, with strong bipartisan votes in both the House and Senate, acted on our legislation.

The Biden administration’s own Commerce Department investigation found that companies are evading U.S. tariffs on solar imports by circumventing those provisions. Yet the administration suspended enforcement on this matter. That’s not acceptable to the specific workers that I represent.

Because let’s keep in mind, we have to be thinking about the entirety of the supply chain when it comes to solar energy production, including polysilicon production.

By suspending those tariffs on those who violate our trade laws, we are rewarding the worst behavior and penalizing those companies that choose to follow the law. Failing to act will mean that other countries will think they can simply take advantage of American business and the American worker, making us more reliant on foreign manufacturing and supply chains, including for our clean energy needs.

Climate change is real. Addressing climate change is important. And fair trade is important.

We cannot be short-sighted in our efforts to rely on foreign companies and countries to meet our energy goals, especially when they have found to be in violation of U.S. trade laws.

It is a false choice. It is a false choice to suggest that we can either choose to combat climate change or protect American manufacturers and American workers. We can do both.

I encourage my colleagues to vote yes to override this veto and to hold those companies, those bad actors accountable. This is not simple. This is difficult. But we do need to make sure we make the point.

There will always be an argument to look the other way—to get cheaper products by looking the other way when it comes to some of the worst practices in manufacturing on this planet. Of course it’s going to be cheaper to look the other way when workers are being exploited, when intellectual property is being stolen, when child labor is being utilized.

It will always be cheaper. But it is wrong.

We can do both. We do not have to make this sacrifice of one principle in the name of the other. We cannot take the position that for only 24 months we are going to look the other way, and then we will go back to adhering to both of these principles. We can do both.

I encourage my colleagues to join me in doing so.

Thank you and I yield back.

Original source can be found here.