Miller Questions United States Trade Representative Ambassador Tai on the Biden Administration's 2024 Trade Agenda

Washington D.C. - Congresswoman Miller (R-WV) questioned United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai on the Biden Administration's 2024 trade agenda during a Ways and Means Committee Hearing.

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Congresswoman Miller began by expressing her disappointment with the Biden Administration's 2024 trade agenda and highlighted how the U.S. is falling behind China.

"The United States is losing ground at every step. I have been disappointed with the feckless trade agenda promoted by President Biden and his Administration. This Administration is more focused on woke, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), climate, and other big labor agendas than meaningful trade policy. Nothing in this year's National Trade Estimate report gives me confidence that this Administration is committed to the basics of trade. There have been no trade deals, no talks to expand Free Trade Agreements, no export control markets, and no increases in market access under President Biden's leadership. Compared to China's ambitious agenda, the United States is falling behind in every region in the world," said Congresswoman Miller.

"China has an extremely aggressive trade strategy in the Indo-Pacific, which basically, is their dressed-up trade version of the Belt and Road. They recently concluded the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations with 15 countries. They are trying to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and they are working to conclude a digital negotiation with some of our closest allies in the region. This has real consequences for our manufacturing companies, our farmers, and our energy producers in my district. If a company in Vietnam wants to import an Information and Communication Technology and Service (ICTS) product from the U.S., it pays a 35 percent tariff. If it imports the same thing from China, it's zero. If a company in Japan wants to import petroleum from the U.S., it pays 18 percent. If it imports the same thing from China, once again it's zero. Unfortunately, even though these countries are in Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), it doesn't sound like these issues are on the table," said Congresswoman Miller.

"Ambassador Tai, do you think this situation is in our best competitive interest? And if not, why isn't this part of IPEF?" asked Congresswoman Miller.

"Congresswoman Miller, I'm sorry that you cannot see our trade policy and you've described it as feckless. I think that's entirely unfair, but you are obviously entitled to your opinion and your adjectives. It is true that China is a very fierce competitor in the global economy. We have stiff competition that we need to rise to the challenge to address. What I would like to do though is to have all of us take more confidence in the strength of the American economy and the focus that we are placing on our economic resilience. When you look at our partners in the Indo-Pacific, a lot of what we are trying to do, including the Indo-Pacific economic framework, is to lead on an agenda to help create more resilience for ourselves and our partners to create more resilience for them. Right now, in that region, the supply chains there are so dominated by and so entangled with the Chinese economy and the Chinese supply chains. This is a result of the way we pursue comprehensive free trade agreements. They are really in favor of liberalization and a program that has really advantaged the Chinese approach to economic dominance," responded Ambassador Tai.

"What we are really laser focused on here, whether it's through USTR, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Treasury, the National Security Council, the National Economic Council is developing a set of tools and a program for the United States to be able to develop more supply chains, more supply chains that are independent, that run through more different countries, to revitalize our own manufacturing base so that we have more options in a world that is as volatile and unpredictable as the one that we are in now. We know that we and our allies are better off if we have more options and we have more parallel supply chains," continued Ambassador Tai. "That's the animating force behind the types of economic engagements, frameworks, agreements that we are negotiating. I know they look different from what came before but that's really the feature not the bug because we need for our economic engagements to produce different outcomes. We need to produce more supply chains that can rebound, more supply chains that run through more places and that is exactly what we're doing. I am going to be the first to admit that it's not easy getting folks to do something different, to pursue a different program even when they agree with the objective is hard work. But that is something where we are only going to succeed if we work together. I know that you and I share a lot of goals. I hope that we will be able to work together on this set of goals too."