Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - Hillary Clinton's Trade Agenda Making Trade Work for Indiana Workers and Families

With working families squeezed by soaring gas prices, stagnant wages and an economy sliding into recession, Hoosiers need a President who will fight for their economic interests from day one. Americans need a President who will fight for fair, pro-American trade policies that will not trap them in a race to the bottom.

President Bush has failed to make trade work for Americans or to effectively enforce our trade laws. For seven years, the Bush Administration has ignored or under-utilized legitimate trade enforcement tools as countries like China have manipulated their currencies, violated trade rules and hurt U.S. manufacturers. The Bush Administration has brought less than half as many cases to the World Trade Organization as our trading partners have brought against the US. During this period, the trade deficit has nearly doubled to $708 billion and China's holdings of U.S. public debt has risen to almost $500 billion. President Bush has allowed China to become America's banker, making it harder to promote our interests and push back against their unfair trade practices. According to the Economic Policy Institute, between 2001 and 2006 Indiana lost 45,200 jobs as a result of our increased trade deficit with China alone.

Hillary Clinton has outlined an ambitious agenda to review and renegotiate our trade agreements and formulate a new pro-worker approach to trade policy. She has also laid out specific steps she will take as President to ensure that we are once again enforcing our trade laws and providing a level playing field for American workers. Her plan includes:

A Trade "Timeout." As President, Senator Clinton will take a "timeout" from new trade agreements until her administration has formulated a comprehensive trade policy for the 21st century - one that is genuinely pro-worker, pro-American, and vigorously enforced. Reviewing existing trade deals, strengthening enforcement, and formulating a smart trade policy will be her priorities.

Fixing NAFTA. NAFTA was negotiated more than 14 years ago, and Senator Clinton believes it has not lived up to its promises. Senator Clinton is the only candidate with a detailed plan to fix NAFTA - one that addresses its shortcomings and brings the agreement up to date. As President, she will work with our trade partners to: dramatically strengthen NAFTA's labor and environmental provisions; change NAFTA's investment provisions that grant special rights to foreign companies; strengthen NAFTA's enforcement mechanisms; and review NAFTA regularly.

A New Trade "Prosecutor." As President, Senator Clinton will vigorously enforce our trade agreements. To that end, she will appoint a trade enforcement officer and double the enforcement staff at USTR. The current staff is too small to monitor and enforce increasingly complex trade agreements. Vigorous enforcement of our trade agreements has not been a priority for President Bush - but it will be for Senator Clinton. To ensure such enforcement, Senator Clinton will:

• Aggressively challenge illegal trading practices through the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Mechanism. The Bush Administration has filed less than 3 cases a year at the WTO to challenge our trading partners for breaking WTO rules. That compares to an average of 11 cases filed per year during the Clinton Administration. Meanwhile, our trading partners have been actively pursuing claims against the U.S. at the WTO, filing an average of seven cases per year since 2001. This puts the U.S. on its heels, and puts U.S. workers and businesses at a competitive disadvantage. As President, Senator Clinton will fully utilize the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism to challenge practices that violate WTO commitments.
• Ensure that "Section 301" Petitions Alleging Unfair Trading Practices Receive a Fair, Nonpartisan Review. Another important tool in our trade enforcement toolkit is the provision that allows non-governmental actors to petition the government about unfair trading practices by our trading partners. The Bush Administration has failed to utilize this tool. Since President Bush took office, the United States Trade Representative has not only refused to take action based on the five Section 301 petitions that have been filed - it has refused to even open an investigation to find out if our industries are being treated unfairly. As President, Senator Clinton will direct her USTR to investigate and publicly report on all Section 301 petitions that are filed, rather than dismissing them out of hand.

Taking a Tough Line on Currency Manipulation. Foreign countries manipulate their currencies to make American goods expensive in their markets and to make their own goods artificially inexpensive. This practice hurts American workers and domestic producers, and it must end. Senator Clinton is a co-sponsor of legislation that will require the administration to take definitive steps to stop China and other countries from harming American interests by undervaluing their currencies. As President, she will move aggressively to address currency manipulation in China and other countries. Senator Clinton has supported legislation to take the following actions to pressure China to revalue its currency, and will consider all of these actions as President: 1) adjusting export prices to account for the price distortion caused by currency misalignment; 2) disallowing the federal government to purchase products or services from China; 3) directing U.S. banks to pause in issuing loans to China; 4) pressuring the IMF to consult with China; and/or 5) imposing a 27.5 percent tariff on all Chinese goods.

Providing Relief for U.S. Manufacturers Hurt by Surges of Chinese Imports. As a condition for China's entry into the WTO, the U.S. adopted special safeguard provisions that offer relief to industries hurt by excessive surges of Chinese imports. Yet since 2001, President Bush has completely abandoned a commitment to enforce this provision, known as "Section 421." In every instance that the International Trade Commission (ITC) has found a violation of Section 421 and recommended relief for U.S. manufacturers, the Bush Administration has blocked relief. These denials have not only handicapped deserving manufacturers - including in the steel industry - they have undermined trust and confidence in our trade laws and our capacity to stand up to China. As President, Senator Clinton will restore the spirit and the letter of our China safeguard trade law by providing relief when the ITC makes a legitimate finding that a surge of Chinese imports is harming U.S. industries. She will require that hers and subsequent Administrations accept ITC findings, or present a public report on the reasons for denying such relief. In instances where relief is denied, Congress should have the authority to review and override such decisions by joint congressional resolution.

Applying Countervailing Duties to Non-Market Economies Like China. Under established policy, the U.S does not apply countervailing duties to non-market economies like China. This means that even when countries like China systematically subsidize their domestic export industries, the U.S. is lacking an important set of tools to apply leverage and help our domestic manufacturers compete. In March 2007 - after 3.16 million manufacturing workers had already lost their jobs under President Bush's watch - the Commerce Department finally decided they would be willing to apply U.S. anti-subsidy law to imports from China. Yet this preliminary decision could be revoked at any point, which undermines the effectiveness of this trade enforcement tool in ensuring that China play by the rules. Senator Clinton believes we should change the law once and for all so that countervailing duties can be applied to non-market economies. This change will help U.S. trade negotiators enforce our trade laws and help lessen unfair export subsidization so that our industries can compete on a level playing field.

Creating an Intellectual Property Enforcement Network to stop IPR violations. Studies have found that counterfeiting is an enormous business in China, costing the global intellectual property industry over $450 billion. In the US, over 81 percent of border seizures of products that violate IPR laws come from China. The US auto industry alone loses over $12 billion a year - at a cost equivalent to hiring 250,000 additional American workers - from counterfeits, 75 percent for which China is responsible. Senator Clinton understands that this is not a problem that can be fixed overnight. But she recognizes the importance of having a President that is willing to deploy diplomatic, legal and enforcement efforts to help reduce incidences of China's intellectual property rights abuses. As President, Senator Clinton will create a new Intellectual Property Enforcement Network to develop and implement a comprehensive national effort to strengthen IPR protections. The IPEN, an idea championed by Senator Bayh, would improve inter-agency coordination and create a new international task force to work with foreign governments on IPR enforcement. In addition, Senator Clinton will increase the ITC's capacity to manage technologically complex IPR cases, including by allowing IPR experts to decide cases.