“The international trade playing field for has been tilted against U.S. producers for too long. The predictable disastrous result has been the loss of more than three million middle-class manufacturing jobs," Tantillo added.
VAT Fairness/Border Tax Equity Act:
"Foreign border-adjusted taxes, mostly value-added (VAT) taxes, rebated on exports and imposed on imports disadvantaged U.S. producers by $294 billion and service providers by $85 billion in 2005. That's an estimated $379 billion disadvantage for just a single year. As for individual countries, the estimated disadvantage with China was almost $48 billion. All of those numbers have only grown since then. VAT fairness critically is needed," Tantillo stated.
To address this problem, AMTAC urges Congress immediately to take up H.R. 2600, the Border Tax Equity Act, introduced by Congressmen Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Mike Michaud (D-ME), and Walter Jones (R-NC). This legislation would negate the price advantage gained by foreign competitors from VAT rebates and assessments.
Currency Misalignment:
"Currency misalignment, especially as blatantly practiced by China, must be stopped now. While the dollar has been plummeting against the Euro and other currencies, China persistently maintains its peg. Between this advantage and the VAT advantage, it is no wonder that China has accumulated more than $1.3 trillion in foreign currency reserves and is running record trade surpluses,” Tantillo said.
“The currency issue has been debated long enough. When Congress returns in September, it immediately should pass H.R. 2942, the Fair Currency Act of 2007 introduced by Congressmen Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Duncan Hunter (R-CA)," Tantillo said.
The Results of a Tilted Playing Field:
The tilted playing field against U.S. producers, caused in significant part by foreign VAT taxes and currency manipulation, has had a significant impact on the United States since 2001 in the form of:
• 3.05 million lost U.S. manufacturing jobs, and;
• $4.0 trillion in accumulated trade deficits.
American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition
marketing@alchempro.com
