House Republican Bill Would End PNTR for China
House Republican conservatives want to end Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China and have introduced a bill that urges the U.S. trade representative to negotiate free trade agreements with Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the U.K. so that importers can have alternatives to Chinese suppliers at a lower cost.
Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee and a Ways and Means committee member, and Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., lead the Countering Communist China Act, a bill that has 43 co-sponsors, all Republicans. Fellow Ways and Means Committee members, Reps. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, are also on the bill, introduced late last week.
"Because of China’s rapid rise on the global and economic stage, and their refusal to stop committing disgusting and well-documented human rights abuses, it’s time to readdress our trade relationship with Beijing," Hern said in a press release announcing the bill. Wilson said he wants to "root out [the Chinese government's] malign influence in our education system and our economy.”
Although the bill is unlikely to move in Congress this year, given the two-seat majority for Republicans in the House, and differing views about how much the U.S. and Chinese economies need to be detangled, outside think tanks that praised the proposal are aligned with former president Donald Trump's foreign policy views, so it may be a preview of how policy could change in a second Trump administration.
The America First Institute's China Policy Initiative Director Adam Savit said the institute supports the legislation. "The measures in this bill represent a comprehensive approach to combating the CCP’s relentless efforts to undermine American security and prosperity at home and abroad. The bill ends normal trade relations with China, provides new accountability for the CCP’s malicious and unfair trade practices that hurt American companies and their workers, and creates new authorities to hold Chinese officials personally accountable for the fentanyl poisoning of Americans," he said.
Ending PNTR does not guarantee higher tariffs on Chinese imports -- in the years before China's accession to the World Trade Organization, there was no PNTR, but China did receive Most Favored Nation tariff treatment when it was renewed annually. However, those who say that China is a threat and that we are dependent on China -- as Hern does -- are unlikely to want half measures.
The bill also prohibits federal purchases of electric vehicles with Chinese components, offers incentives for U.S. manufacturing of medical supplies and medicines, and would streamline approvals for domestic coal, rare earth elements and critical minerals mining.
"For years, Congress has been operating under the guise of friendship with -- and dependence on -- China, but the reality is that the CCP poses a greater threat to American sovereignty than any modern adversary," Hern said. "This bill targets the CCP in a comprehensive and vigorous way, putting American safety and economic security first."