[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2039 Introduced in House (IH)]
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115th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2039
To amend title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 to clarify that
countervailing duties may be imposed to address subsidies relating to a
fundamentally undervalued currency of any foreign country.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 6, 2017
Mr. Levin (for himself, Mr. Pascrell, and Mr. Ryan of Ohio) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and
Means
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A BILL
To amend title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 to clarify that
countervailing duties may be imposed to address subsidies relating to a
fundamentally undervalued currency of any foreign country.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Currency Reform for Fair Trade
Act''.
SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION REGARDING DEFINITION OF COUNTERVAILABLE SUBSIDY.
(a) Benefit Conferred.--Section 771(5)(E) of the Tariff Act of 1930
(19 U.S.C. 1677(5)(E)) is amended--
(1) in clause (iii), by striking ``and'' at the end;
(2) in clause (iv), by striking the period at the end and
inserting ``, and''; and
(3) by inserting after clause (iv) the following new
clause:
``(v) in the case in which the currency of
a country in which the subject merchandise is
produced is exchanged for foreign currency
obtained from export transactions, and the
currency of such country is a fundamentally
undervalued currency, as defined in paragraph
(37), the difference between the amount of the
currency of such country provided and the
amount of the currency of such country that
would have been provided if the real effective
exchange rate of the currency of such country
were not undervalued, as determined pursuant to
paragraph (38).''.
(b) Export Subsidy.--Section 771(5A)(B) of the Tariff Act of 1930
(19 U.S.C. 1677(5A)(B)) is amended by adding at the end the following
new sentence: ``In the case of a subsidy relating to a fundamentally
undervalued currency, the fact that the subsidy may also be provided in
circumstances not involving export shall not, for that reason alone,
mean that the subsidy cannot be considered contingent upon export
performance.''.
(c) Definition of Fundamentally Undervalued Currency.--Section 771
of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677) is amended by adding at the
end the following new paragraph:
``(37) Fundamentally undervalued currency.--The
administering authority shall determine that the currency of a
country in which the subject merchandise is produced is a
`fundamentally undervalued currency' if--
``(A) the government of the country (including any
public entity within the territory of the country)
engages in protracted, large-scale intervention in one
or more foreign exchange markets during part or all of
the 18-month period that represents the most recent 18
months for which the information required under
paragraph (38) is reasonably available, but that does
not include any period of time later than the final
month in the period of investigation or the period of
review, as applicable;
``(B) the real effective exchange rate of the
currency is undervalued by at least 5 percent, on
average and as calculated under paragraph (38),
relative to the equilibrium real effective exchange
rate for the country's currency during the 18-month
period;
``(C) during the 18-month period, the country has
experienced significant and persistent global current
account surpluses; and
``(D) during the 18-month period, the foreign asset
reserves held by the government of the country exceed--
``(i) the amount necessary to repay all
debt obligations of the government falling due
within the coming 12 months;
``(ii) 20 percent of the country's money
supply, using standard measures of M2; and
``(iii) the value of the country's imports
during the previous 4 months.''.
(d) Definition of Real Effective Exchange Rate Undervaluation.--
Section 771 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677), as amended by
subsection (c) of this section, is further amended by adding at the end
the following new paragraph:
``(38) Real effective exchange rate undervaluation.--The
calculation of real effective exchange rate undervaluation, for
purposes of paragraph (5)(E)(v) and paragraph (37), shall--
``(A)(i) rely upon, and where appropriate be the
simple average of, the results yielded from application
of the approaches described in the guidelines of the
International Monetary Fund's Consultative Group on
Exchange Rate Issues; or
``(ii) if the guidelines of the International
Monetary Fund's Consultative Group on Exchange Rate
Issues are not available, be based on generally
accepted economic and econometric techniques and
methodologies to measure the level of undervaluation;
``(B) rely upon data that are publicly available,
reliable, and compiled and maintained by the
International Monetary Fund or, if the International
Monetary Fund cannot provide the data, by other
international organizations or by national governments;
and
``(C) use inflation-adjusted, trade-weighted
exchange rates.''.
SEC. 3. REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ACT.
(a) In General.--Not later than 9 months after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States
shall submit to Congress a report on the implementation of the
amendments made by this Act.
(b) Matters To Be Included.--The report required by subsection (a)
shall include a description of the extent to which United States
industries that have been materially injured by reason of imports of
subject merchandise produced in foreign countries with fundamentally
undervalued currencies have received relief under title VII of the
Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1671 et seq.), as amended by this Act.
SEC. 4. APPLICATION TO GOODS FROM CANADA AND MEXICO.
Pursuant to article 1902 of the North American Free Trade Agreement
and section 408 of the North American Free Trade Agreement
Implementation Act of 1993 (19 U.S.C. 3438), the amendments made by
section 2 of this Act shall apply to goods from Canada and Mexico.
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