[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2690 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2690
To amend the Trade Act of 1974 to provide adjustment assistance to
farmers adversely affected by reduced exports resulting from tariffs
imposed as retaliation for United States tariff increases, and for
other purposes.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 14, 2019
Ms. Blunt Rochester introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on Ways and Means
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A BILL
To amend the Trade Act of 1974 to provide adjustment assistance to
farmers adversely affected by reduced exports resulting from tariffs
imposed as retaliation for United States tariff increases, and for
other purposes.
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 ``Trade Assistance for Farmers Act of
2019''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) In recognition that trade policy can result in
disparate and disruptive changes to the economy, the Trade
Adjustment Assistance program was enacted to help workers
adversely impacted by the trade policy decisions of the Federal
Government.
(2) The Trump Administration has made clear that it intends
to aggressively use Federal trade statutes, including section
232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. 1862),
section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2411), and
potentially the International Emergency Economic Powers Act
(Public Law 95-223), to increase tariffs on selected imports.
(3) Foreign countries affected by such tariff increases
have, as of the date of the enactment of this Act, already
raised tariffs on United States agricultural exports or have
indicated that they intend to respond by raising tariffs on
such agricultural exports.
(4) Increased tariffs on such agricultural exports threaten
to cost United States agricultural producers global market
share and reduce the income of producers of affected
commodities.
(5) Farmers adversely impacted by these effects deserve
adjustment assistance.
SEC. 3. ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE FOR RETALIATORY TARIFF INCREASES.
Section 292(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2401a(c)) is
amended--
(1) by striking paragraphs (2) and (3); and
(2) by inserting after paragraph (1) the following:
``(2) either--
``(A) the volume of imports of articles like, or
directly competitive with, the agricultural commodity
produced by the group in the marketing year with
respect to which the group files the petition increased
compared to the average volume of such imports during
the 3 marketing years preceding such marketing year; or
``(B)(i) the volume of exports of the agricultural
commodity produced by the group in the marketing year
with respect to which the group files the petition
decreased compared to the average volume of such
exports during the 3 marketing years preceding such
marketing year; and
``(ii) the decrease in exports described in clause
(i) resulted in whole or in part from tariffs imposed
on such exports by a foreign country in response to
United States tariffs imposed on imports from such
country pursuant to action taken under the authority
of--
``(I) section 232 of the Trade Expansion
Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. 1862);
``(II) section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974
(19 U.S.C. 2411); or
``(III) the International Emergency
Economic Powers Act (Public Law 95-223); and
``(3) the increase in imports under subparagraph (B)(i) or
the decrease in exports under subparagraph (B)(ii) contributed
importantly to the decrease in the national average price,
quantity of production, or value of production of, or cash
receipts for, the agricultural commodity, as described in
paragraph (1).''.
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