WASHINGTON – Yesterday, Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Nebraska), chair of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, along with Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Illinois), member of the Select Committee on the CCP and co-chair of the U.S.-China Working Group, and Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kansas), chair of the House Aerospace Caucus, sent a letter to President Biden expressing concerns about the administration’s lack of a clear and comprehensive trade agenda.
Key excerpts are below.
We write to express concern about your administration’s lack of a clear trade agenda.
More than two years into your term, your administration has not begun to negotiate any comprehensive and enforceable trade agreements, let alone concluded such an agreement. This lacking negotiating agenda puts U.S. farmers, workers, and job-creators at a disadvantage against China.
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While the United States has come to a virtual standstill in competition for economic influence because of a focus on dialogues, frameworks, and limited agreements that lack meaningful enforcement mechanisms and market access commitments, China and other economic competitors have taken advantage of our absence.
High-standard new trade agreements will positively impact the U.S. economy, adding billions of dollars to annual gross domestic product, strengthening key supply chains, and creating jobs for many of our constituents.
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We encourage you to strongly review your approach of using trade policy to compete with China.
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The letter was signed by the following members of the Ways and Means Committee: Reps. Carol D. Miller (R-West Virginia), Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), A. Drew Ferguson, IV (R-Georgia), Vern Buchanan (R-Florida), David Kustoff (R-Tennessee), Blake Moore (R-Utah), Kevin Hern (R-Oklahoma), Michelle Steel (R-California), Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M (R-Ohio), W. Gregory Steube (R-Florida), Nicole Malliotakis (R-New York), Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), Gregory F. Murphy, M.D. (R-North Carolina), Claudia Tenney (R-New York), Lloyd Smucker (R-Pennsylvania), Michelle Fischbach (R-Minnesota), and Jodey C. Arrington (R-Texas).
Read the letter here.
