releases: http://barletta.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/barletta-backs-customs-bill-protecting-steel-american-jobs
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| http://barletta.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/barletta-backs-customs-bill-protecting-steel-american-jobs | Barletta Backs Customs Bill Protecting Steel, American Jobs | 2015-12-11 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Republican | House | PA | Lou Barletta | B001269 | barletta.house.gov | legacy | WASHINGTON Congressman Lou Barletta, PA-11, today voted in favor of legislation that strengthens enforcement of U.S. customs and trade laws and protects American employers and workers from unfair practices by companies in other nations. The conference report on the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (H.R. 644), which is the result of negotiations between the House and Senate, incorporates requirements Barletta insisted upon to protect American jobs from countries which illegally dump cheap products into markets like steel manufacturing. The bill passed the House by a vote of 256-to-158 and now awaits approval from the Senate. The provisions of the ENFORCE Act included in the conference report prevent countries from circumventing trade laws by shipping a product through another country and switching the label. For example, when China dumps steel into America, American steel companies spend time and money building a case against the Chinese dumping. If they win that case, the steel companies deserve to have the Chinese penalized for the dumping. The ENFORCE Act makes sure that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) actually investigates the American companies case. The ENFORCE Act gives CBP a strict deadline to review the case. American companies can pursue a case in U.S. Trade Court if the company believes CBP is rubberstamping the decisions without fairly reviewing the details. Barletta issued the following statement for the record: Mr. Speaker, today, we are making critical changes to our domestic trade laws to ensure that U.S. companies compete on a level playing field. Manufacturers in my district have suffered a competitive disadvantage from trade cheaters in China and other foreign countries that dont follow the trade rules we already have on the books. Unfortunately, there are companies in China who cheat. American companies cannot compete with products that are subsidized by foreign governments and therefore priced below market value. American companies waste valuable time and legal fees bringing cases against unfairly subsidized products that are dumped into the United States. When American companies win these dumping cases, they deserve to have the penalties enforced. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, American companies have not been competing on a level playing field. Those same trade cheaters that dumped their goods into our U.S. markets are adding insult to injury by evading the duty or penalty. When they ship the product from a country that doesnt have a penalty for dumping, they are skipping out on paying the penalty for cheating in the first place. We need a better referee to level the playing field. We need the penalties to be enforced. Thats why I negotiated for the inclusion of the ENFORCE Act in the final Customs Bill and defended their importance throughout this Conference process. This bill will ensure that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must investigate cases of duty evasion within 300 days. If for some reason CBP begins rubberstamping these decisions, the company can go to a U.S. court to have the case reviewed. These are critical reforms that are necessary to ensure that American companies are on a level playing field. I thank my colleagues and friends Mr. McHenry, Mr. Tiberi, Chairman Brady, Speaker Ryan, Mr. Boustany, Mr. Smith, and the Steel Caucus for working with me on this important reform. Every foreign company wants to sell their goods on American store shelves to American consumers. We must make sure we have the tools we need at the border to prevent foreign trade cheaters from sneaking their goods onto our shelves without paying the appropriate duties. We must protect American manufacturers and American jobs from trade cheaters. Additionally, I urge support for this bill because of critical protections against misguided attempts to use trade agreements to rewrite our domestic immigration laws and environmental regulations. While this bill is not perfect, the permanent improvements to our trade laws and the bans on misuse of trade agreements make it worthy of our support. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |