Pritzker Talks Exports, Trade Enforcement at Nomination Hearing
Vowing to reassess regulations, increase exports and work on collecting unpaid duties on agricultural imports from China, Commerce Secretary nominee Penny Pritzker had a relatively trouble-free nomination hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee May 23. The longtime Obama fundraiser and businesswoman repeatedly said one of her goals is to ensure equal footing for American businesses.
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The U.S. faces “incoming import challenges as well as export challenges,” she said in response to a question on trade enforcement. “I think that the Commerce Department, if I’m confirmed, should focus on both. We can’t just afford to focus on one and not the other because we need to focus on creating a level playing field for our companies globally.”
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., questioned Pritzker about transshipment. Commerce has said its policy is not to address duty evasion through transshipment, a trade violation that is hurting U.S. companies, Blunt said. Transshipment “is a problem that many members of the Senate want to work with you to help solve, Blunt said, pointing to the ENFORCE Act, which includes new antidumping and countervailing duty rules. The bill was introduced as a stand-alone in 2011, and is part of the current customs bill in the Senate, S-662. “I hope that you’ll look into this and find why that would be the stated policy [of Commerce],” Blunt said. Pritzker said while she was familiar with transshipment, she was not familiar with the Commerce Department statement.
Later in the hearing, however, she did commit to working with Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., on uncollected duties owed to Commerce. Thune said $400 to $500 million in antidumping duties on four different types of agriculture goods from China have remained uncollected; he asked Pritzker to “commit to provide Congress with a full accounting of all the new shipper bonds that secure antidumping duties on these agriculture imports from China, and a plan for collecting the unpaid duties required by these bonds.”
Thune said honey producers in his home state are hurt through transshipment and these uncollected duties. “Enforcement mechanisms available to prevent [transshipment] don’t get utilized.” The Senate customs reauthorization legislation includes a specific section on honey transshipment (see 13032906).
Prtizker also said she would focus on boosting the number of exporting companies. Currently, only 1 percent of U.S. companies actually export, and 58 percent of them export to a single country, she said. “What if we have 58 percent exporting to two countries, three countries? What if 2 percent of American companies were exporting? Think of the job creation associated with that.”
For more on Prtizker’s background see 13050221.