Warren, Colleagues Call on Leadership to Include Trade Provisions in China Competitiveness Bill that Level the Playing Field for American Workers
Senators: “Investments in domestic production… must be paired with pro-worker, pro-environment trade provisions to give American businesses and workers a fighting chance to compete against non-market economies”
Washington, D.C. – United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi urging them to prioritize the pro-worker, pro-environment trade provisions in the China competitiveness bill, known as USICA in the Senate and the America COMPETES Act in the House. As the Senate and House begin to conference their bills, the senators are calling for bolstered domestic chip manufacturing and scientific innovation to be paired with trade provisions that help level the playing field for American workers and businesses.
“American workers can outcompete anyone in the world if they are working on a level playing field,” the senators wrote. “We must make these overdue investments in domestic manufacturing and American workers, which will strengthen American economic and national security, lower costs for families, provide good-paying jobs to American workers and ensure that we can make things here in America rather than relying on our foreign adversaries for the basic functions of our economy. Investments in domestic production, however, must be paired with pro-worker, pro-environment trade provisions to give American businesses and workers a fighting chance to compete against non-market economies, such as China, that are rigging the rules in their favor and denying our companies and our workers the only thing they need—a fair shot.”
Senator Warren has been fighting for a more labor-centric trade policy that demands focus on negative impacts that trade deals can have on workers, and elevating the voices of workers. Recently, Senators Warren and Brown released a statement in response to the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) request that the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) launch an investigation of the unequal impacts of trade and trade policy on American workers, especially underrepresented and underserved communities. In 2021 at a Finance hearing, Senator Warren urged then-U.S. Trade Representative Nominee Katherine Tai to commit to ensuring trade advisory committees have more representatives from labor, consumer, environmental groups than corporations.
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