Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 107 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 107 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 148 WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2002 No. 108—Part II House of Representatives The House was not in session today. Its next meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 4, 2002, at 2 p.m. Senate THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2002 TRADE ACT OF 2002 MURKOWSKI, and WELLSTONE on bene- Finally, I would say a word of thanks Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, before fits for steel retirees. to the many members of the Adminis- we conclude today, I would be remiss if Finally, I, of course want to thank tration who staffed and supported this I did not thank a number of people. my partner on the Finance Committee, legislative effort, including Grant First, in the House, I want to thank Senator CHUCK GRASSLEY for being Aldonas, Faryar Shirzad, Peter David- Chairman BILL THOMAS. He and I dis- helpful throughout this process. son, John Veroneau, Heather Wingate, agree on some things—that’s for sure. Of course, to actually complete work Brenda Becker, Penny Naas, and many But we share a common goal of both on a major bill like this requires the others. expanding trade and helping workers efforts of many others. For more than I—as well as the Senate and the left behind by trade. And we share the 18 months, many staff members have country—owe you all a debt of grati- goal of getting this to the President’s made incalculable efforts to prepare tude. desk as soon as possible so that we can this legislation and move it to passage. I also rise today to thank one addi- help jump-start this economy. We John Angell and Mike Evans oversaw tional person who played an enormous worked together to craft a strong trade the efforts of the Finance Committee role in the passing of this trade bill— bill—and I thank him for his efforts. staff on this legislation and all other Howard Rosen. Second—I want to thank Congress- activities of the Committee. I do not believe there is a person in men CAL DOOLEY, JOHN TANNER, and Greg Mastel led the effort on the this country who feels more passion- BILL JEFFERSON, who helped craft the Democratic staff to prepare this legis- ately about the TAA legislation than House fast track legislation, and also lation from the first round of hearings Howard Rosen. He helped write this ANNA ESHOO and KEN BENTSEN, who to the final Senate vote. He was ably bill, he worked hard to encourage provided so much help on TAA. assisted by a tremendously skilled and Members of the Senate and Members of In the Senate, I first want to thank energetic staff, including Tim Punke, the House to support this bill, and he is Senator DASCHLE, who has helped this Ted Posner, Angela Marshall, Shara a big reason that we now have such a trade bill move through every step of Aranoff, and Andy Harig. good TAA program. the process. I also want to thank two The Finance Committee health and And I know Howard’s efforts will not Senators who played a key role during tax staffs also played an important end here. I know he will keep working the committee process—Senator role, especially Liz Fowler, Kate to make TAA an even better program. BINGAMAN for his efforts on TAA and Kirchgraber, Liz Liebschutz, Mitchell We all owe him a great deal of thanks. Senator BOB GRAHAM on ATPA. And I Kent, and Mike Mongan. ANTICIRCUMVENTION appreciate Senator BREAUX’s work The Finance Committee also bene- Mr. BREAUX. Mr. President, I want both during the Senate negotiations fited from the able efforts of the lead- to bring to the Senate’s attention a and during the conference. ing Republican staff members, Everett section of the conference agreement I also want to give credit to a num- Eissenstat and Richard Chriss. that is extremely important to the fu- ber of Senators whose efforts made this In the House, the staff of the Ways ture of the U.S. sugar program and to legislation much better. Senators DAY- and Means Committee and the New the workers and companies in the do- TON and CRAIG on trade laws; Senator Democrats who supported this bill de- mestic sugar industry. As the gen- EDWARDS on the textile negotiating ob- serve similar credit. tleman from Montana knows very well, jectives and also on TAA; Senator KEN- This legislation also literally would I am talking about Section 5203 of the NEDY on access to medicines; Senator not have been possible without the help Trade Act of 2002, regarding sugar tar- HARKIN on child labor; Senator INOUYE of our skilled legislative counsel, Polly iff-rate quota circumvention. The pol- on some of the tuna provisions in Craighill, Stephanie Easley, and Ruth icy established in Section 5203 on sugar ATPA, and Senators ROCKEFELLER, Ernst, and Mark Mathiesen. tariff rate quota circumvention is very ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S7817 . VerDate Mar 15 2010 20:08 Jan 09, 2014 Jkt 081600 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4637 Sfmt 0634 E:\2002SENATE\S01AU2.PT2 S01AU2 mmaher on DSKCGSP4G1 with SOCIALSECURITY S7818 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE August 1, 2002 important to the future of the sugar in- not the only methods used for cir- such a garment be eligible for benefits dustry in Louisiana and the United cumvention. Importers will try vari- under this provision? States. ations of circumventing products that Mr. BAUCUS. I believe that such a Mr. BAUCUS. I am very familiar were imported in the past, and they garment would be eligible for benefits with Section 5203 and its importance to will try to devise new methods for cir- under that provision. A garment en- the future of the domestic sugar indus- cumvention. tered under the regional fabric provi- try, including the sugarbeet growers Section 5203 directs the Secretary of sion of AGOA is not ineligible for bene- and processors in Montana. I would Agriculture and Commissioner of Cus- fits simply because it happens to incor- like to take this opportunity to com- toms to monitor continuously imports porate U.S. yarns, fabrics, or compo- mend Senator BREAUX, Senator CRAIG, of products provided for under Chapter nents. and Senator THOMAS for the work they 17, 18, 19 and 21 of the HTS for indica- Mr. GRASSLEY. A related question have been doing to address the problem tions that products are being used for concerns the increase in the quan- of circumvention of the tariff-rate circumvention. It is my understanding titative cap, provided for in Section quotas on sugar and sugar-containing that ‘‘continuously’’ means looking at 3108(b) of the conference report. As I products. import statistics for each month. If understand it, the cap increases rep- Mr. BREAUX. I accept those kind they see anything suspicious, such as resent an approximate doubling of the words on behalf of all of the Senators significant increases in imports over percentages used in setting the caps who are working on this issue. Let me historic levels or a change in the ports under current law, except the increase explain the problem briefly. The price of entry from the historic pattern, they can only be used for garments con- of sugar on world markets is almost al- will look into the transactions to as- taining regional or a mixture of re- ways very low and is often below the sure themselves there is no circumven- gional and U.S. inputs. cost of producing sugar even in the tion or to determine precisely how the Mr. BAUCUS. That is correct. The most efficient sugar industries. This circumvention is being carried out. The cap is set as a percentage of the aggre- phenomenon is caused by subsidization Secretary and the Commissioner shall gate square meter equivalents of all of sugar exports by the European report their findings and make rec- apparel articles imported into the Union and other governments, and by ommendations for action to Congress United States in the preceding 12- dumping by companies that must ex- and the President every six months in month period for which data are avail- port their sugar at any price to avoid a public report. able. Under current law, the applicable harming their domestic markets. Mr. BAUCUS. As Chairman of the percentage for the 1-year period begin- The U.S. sugar program is intended Senate Finance Committee and Co- ning October 1, 2000 was 1.5 percent. to keep the price of sugar in the U.S. Chair of the Conference Committee, I The applicable percentage increases by market at a level that assures a rea- agree that you have accurately de- equal annual increments, so that for sonable return to U.S. growers, proc- scribed this important section and its the period beginning October 1, 2007, essors and refiners of cane and beet intent. the applicable percentage does not ex- sugar. A primary component of the Mr. BREAUX. Thank you, Chairman ceed 3.5 percent. Under that formula, program is WTO-legal tariff-rate BAUCUS for clarifying this issue. You the applicable percentage for the 1- quotas on imported sugar and sugar- clearly understand the importance we year period beginning October 1, 2002 containing products under Chapters 17, attach to this monitoring, reporting, will be approximately 2.072 percent. 18, 19 and 21 of the Harmonized Tariff and recommendation program.