U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee Drills Trade Agencies on China
June 11, 2003
The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies
held a hearing on Thursday, May 22, 2003 titled “The Effects of Chinese Imports
on U.S. Companies.” Subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA) chaired the hearing
to “hear the experiences and concerns of a number of American businesses about
increased imports from the People’s Republic of China,” and to “review the
efforts of U.S. trade-related agencies to support American businesses in this
regard.” Chairman Wolf also noted that, “[t]he Subcommittee has heard concerns
that the Administration has unfairly favored Chinese businesses at the expense
of American companies in antidumping cases,” which he found to be “deeply
troubling” given the “sharply increasing U.S. trade deficit.”
Five separate panels provided oral testimony on the issue
and answered questions asked by the Committee’s panel, including the Vice
Chairman of the Subcommittee David Vitter (R-LA) and Representatives Patrick
Kennedy (D-RI), John Petersen (R-PA), Joseph Pitts (R-PA), Ralph Regula (R-OH),
Martin Sabo (D-MN), Jose Serrano (D-NY), Charles Taylor (R-NC) and Jerry Weller
(R-IL).
The first four panels were composed of representatives of
the U.S. manufacturing, chemical/pharmaceutical, agricultural and textile
sectors. Frank Vargo, Vice President of the National Association of
Manufacturers, gave a brief overview of the U.S./China trade relationship to
begin the industry testimony. Most of the industry representatives expressed
concerns about the process and procedures they encountered with the U.S.
Department of Commerce (Commerce) in specific antidumping and countervailing
duty investigations. Such concerns included the apparently large discrepancies
between duty margins calculated by Commerce for imports of certain products from
China and those calculated by similar trade agencies of other governments for
the same products from China. Thomas Gleason, Vice President of Marketing at
Ward Manufacturing, testified that in an antidumping case involving his company
concerning malleable pipe fitting imports from China, Commerce calculated
dumping duties in the single digits just after both the European Union and
Mexico found dumping margins of 48 percent and 42 percent for the same product
from China.
The final panel specifically addressed Section 421 of the
Trade Act of 1974, represented by William Wolf, President of Motion Systems,
located in Eatontown, New Jersey. As a petitioner for trade relief under
Section 421, Mr. Wolf testified that during the Office of the United States
Trade Representative’s (USTR) investigative phase of Motion System’s case, the
USTR refused to meet with his company while granting meetings with Chinese
representatives on several occasions.
The fifth panel included representatives from international
trade agencies of the U.S. Government: Peter Allgeier, Deputy U.S. Trade
Representative; Grant Aldonas, Under Secretary for International Trade, U.S.
Department of Commerce; and Douglas Browning, Deputy Commissioner of Customs and
Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In his oral testimony,
the Deputy USTR denied that Chinese representatives had received the
preferential treatment alleged by Mr. Wolf of Motion Systems. After the panel
finished with their testimony, the Chairman asked that Allgeier provide the
subcommittee with details concerning the dates, times and participants of any
meetings held in connection with Motion System’s case.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Chairman Wolf suggested
the possibility of holding a meeting in the near future to follow-up on the
actions, if any, the Administration and the trade agencies have taken to address
the issues and concerns raised by the industry representatives during the
hearing.