Wyden Praises Overwhelming Passage of Bipartisan Senate Finance Committee Trade Amendment To Target China’s Predatory Trade Policies

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., applauded the 91-4 passage of a bipartisan trade amendment targeting China’s predatory trade policies, as an amendment to a larger international competition bill today.

The amendment, by Wyden and Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo, D-Idaho, helps level the playing field for American workers, farmers, fishers and families by taking aim at China’s worst practices, including forced labor, theft of intellectual property, and unethical seafood production.

“For decades, the Chinese government has manipulated global competition and trade in their favor to grow at America’s expense. It rips off IP, steals technology and sends dangerous counterfeits to our market. It undercuts manufacturers with overproduction and unfair subsidies. It uses censorship and discriminatory digital policies against its own population and American businesses alike. Worst of all is the practice of forced labor – morally repugnant on its own, and also a threat to American jobs,” Wyden said today.

“Senator Crapo and I passed an amendment that goes after these rip-offs directly. It’s about leveling the playing field with stronger trade rules and quicker enforcement, as well as greater transparency in trade.”

The bill mirrors earlier amendments proposed by Wyden and Crapo, and includes an extension of the Generalized System of Preferences and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill with important updates to eligibility rules that ensure trade policy rewards advances in human rights, women’s economic empowerment, labor, environment, rule of law and digital trade, among others.

Read a section-by-section summary of the bill here. The text is available here. 

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