Froman, Pritzker Defend Re-Export Trade Stats in Letter to DeLauro
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker dug in to defend the administration’s policy of using re-exports in both import and export trade statistics on April 1 in a letter to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., one of the biggest trade critics on Capitol Hill. The letter is a response to a DeLauro inquiry. DeLauro has often criticized USTR for distorting trade statistics to sell the Trans-Pacific Partnership (see 14051215).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The two cabinet members said DeLauro prefers a statistic calculation methodology that excludes re-exports from export data, but continues to use those figures in import data. That method would show “an imbalanced equation that overstates imports relative to exports,” said the letter (here). Froman and Pritzker also praised the impact imports have on the U.S. economy and employment. “Many imports are goods we do not produce in the United State and half of U.S. imports are intermediate goods that go into supporting U.S. production.” Re-exports are goods that enter the U.S. and are then exported without alteration.
But DeLauro and her allies in the House immediately hit back against the letter. “Serious distortions arise in our trade balances with specific countries when the Administration counts foreign-made goods as U.S. exports. Congress needs accurate data on the past agreements that on which the TPP is based,” she said with several House Democratic colleagues in an emailed statement. “The past is prologue and if we do not have an honest assessment of the devastating impact our previous trade agreements have had on America’s domestic manufacturing base, we cannot evaluate the TPP on its merits.”