Unit 4: House Passes Bill to Address China Subsidy

WASHINGTON — The House voted on Tuesday to ensure that the United States could impose duties on subsidized goods from China and Vietnam, overwhelmingly rejecting a conservative group’s attempt to portray it as a tax increase.

The bill, which was passed 370 to 39 and addresses a court ruling, now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law. The Senate passed the bill on Monday.

“China distorts the free market by giving enormous subsidies to its producers and exporters, and our companies and workers should not be expected to compete against the deep pockets of the Chinese government,” Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said during debate.

The Obama administration helped draw up the bipartisan bill after an appeals court ruled in December that the Commerce Department did not have authority to impose countervailing — or antisubsidy — duties on goods from “nonmarket economies.”

The decision endangered countervailing duties on about two dozen goods from China and Vietnam worth more than $4 billion in trade, and potential new duties in cases involving solar panels and turbine towers from China.

Supporters say current duties protect 80,000 American jobs. They cover steel, aluminum, paper, chemicals, other products from China and plastic shopping bags from Vietnam.

The vote gave both Republicans and Democrats a chance to show they are being tough on China, which many Americans see as an unfair trader. Last year, United States imports from China totaled a record $399.3 billion.