Sen. Franken, Colleagues Urge Trump Administration to Hold China Accountable and Stand Up for American Workers

Press Release

Sen. Al Franken and his colleagues have urged the Trump Administration not to grant China "market economy" status--a move that would benefit Chinese corporations at the expense of American workers.

In a letter joined by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the Senators argued that the United States must strongly combat unfair foreign trade practices by China, and that naming China a market economy--which it clearly is not--would undermine such efforts.

China is currently classified as a "non-market economy"--meaning that the government closely controls the economy, and prices don't accurately reflect their true values. And because China is classified as a non-market economy, the U.S. is able to take additional steps to more accurately impose anti-dumping duties for commodities like steel. Declaring China to be a market economy would imperil many of the critical tariffs recently levied on Chinese steel imports.

"Our constituents rely on the Department of Commerce to accurately and appropriately take steps to deter unfair and illegal trade practices by foreign producers who export their products to the United States at prices below fair value," the Senators wrote. "Dumping--the practice of exporting goods at a price below the goods' fair value--undercuts U.S. workers and U.S. businesses."

The Senators continued, "Wrongly granting China market economy status would imperil thousands of U.S. jobs and U.S. businesses, and therefore we urge you carefully consider this matter to ensure the full scope of non-market factors currently in place in the Chinese economy are considered in your review."

Since joining the Senate, Sen. Franken has fought to crack down on Chinese steel dumping and other foreign trade cheats. Last year, he introduced bipartisan legislation with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) proposing a simple, yet effective step to support fair trade practices: The U.S. Commerce Department could not use any taxpayer resources to unilaterally grant market-economy status to China. By doing that, American workers, communities, and industries would be better protected from China's non-market economy.

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