Disapproving the Rule Submitted By the Department of Commerce Relating to ``Procedures Covering Suspension of Liquidation, Duties and Estimated Duties in Accord with Presidential Proclamation

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. POSEY. Mr. Speaker, China is cheating America. They know it. You know it. I know it. Everybody knows it. China is avoiding the tariffs both Presidents Obama and Trump agreed upon by shipping solar panels through other countries in Southeast Asia and simply slapping a new label on them.

It is an undeniable fact, investigated and verified by the U.S. Department of Commerce. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the CCP--the Chinese Communist Party--has detained more than 1 million Uyghurs and other minorities in China's far western Xinjiang region.

An astounding 1 million people detained. To put that in perspective, that is nearly the equivalent of every man, woman, and child in most of our congressional districts. Many of these people have been forced into labor camps and factories to produce goods for the Chinese Communist Party loyalists to sell around the globe.

China produces 18 goods using forced or slave labor. Any use of slave labor is morally wrong. We know that, and China is by far the world's biggest offender.

Among the products produced by the Uyghurs and others through forced labor are electronics and polysilicon, which is used to make solar panels. Over 50 percent of the country's production of polysilicon takes place in Xinjiang. Some of those solar panels are the very same solar panels we are talking about here today.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, these are some of the conditions that Uyghurs and others in China's western region face as they make solar panels: They receive little pay; they are not allowed to leave; they have limited or no communication with their family members; and they must learn Mandarin and undergo an ideological indoctrination. That is truly barbaric, and we shouldn't sell out our production to help them.

The regulation in question violates both our laws about importing products made with forced labor and enables these labor practices to continue.

I feel sure everyone in this Chamber despises the evils of slavery and slave labor. In a few minutes we will have the chance to see just who talks the talk and who walks the walk. If we pass this resolution, we can help put a stop to China's cheating and slave labor.

Make no mistake, people can still buy all the Chinese solar panels that they want to buy. We are not stopping them from doing that. We are not making solar panels unavailable. All we are saying is that they have to pay a tariff. Pay the fair tariff that President Obama and President Trump both agreed upon.

I would be remiss in not thanking some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for cosponsoring this commonsense resolution and working to make it bipartisan: The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Khanna).

Please walk the walk and vote in favor of this resolution to put American workers, American products, and the United States of America first.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source