Opinion -- Hawley Bill Would Ban Chinese Ownership of American Farmland

By Senator Josh Hawley’s Office

On Thursday, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) reintroduced legislation to ban Chinese corporations and individuals associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from owning American agricultural land and homes. The Senator's introduction of the Protecting Our Farms and Homes from China Act comes after the Trump Administration recently unveiled its National Farm Security Action Plan, a comprehensive strategy to respond to this challenge and protect our farmland and food supply chains.

“China’s ownership of U.S. farmland poses a direct threat to American interests,” said Senator Hawley. “We should never let our nation’s greatest adversary have access to our vital resources, including our housing supply. That’s why I’m reintroducing legislation to protect American assets from the CCP once and for all.”

According to the USDA, Chinese entities own around 278,000 acres of agricultural land across the country, a total that has spiked 350 percent since 2010. The ownership of so much acreage by our nation’s greatest geopolitical adversary undermines the integrity of our food supply and creates unacceptable national security risks, particularly given the proximity of much of this land to sensitive military installations.

The Protecting Our Farms and Homes from China Act would:

—Prohibit Chinese corporations and individuals affiliated with the CCP from acquiring or leasing United States' agricultural land;

—Prohibit Chinese corporations and individuals associated with the CCP from purchasing residential real estate in the United States for a period of at least two years, with an option for the President to renew the prohibition biennially;

—Require Chinese corporations and individuals affiliated with the CCP to divest ownership of United States' agricultural land and residential real estate within one year;

—Establish civil fines and criminal penalties for noncompliance, including forfeiture.

 

Editorial -- Joe Biden Printing More Money for Ukraine

On Thursday, the US Department of Defense announced that the US would send $675 million worth of guns and bombs to Ukraine. In the meantime, the President is expected to ask for $11.7 billion more in military assistance. As usual, the President offers no way to pay for it. He expects us to make all the sacrifices for it so that he can continue his policy of sticking it to the Russians.

Meanwhile, fertilizer costs continue to spiral out of control. Our roads and bridges are crumbling. Our rural population continues to decline. Paradoxically, the more our rural population continues to decline, the more and more dependent we become on the likes of Russia and China. Which is exactly what Joe Biden wants. The more that Russia and China act belligerently towards Ukraine and Taiwan respectively, the more than Joe Biden can use it to feed the gravy train of the Military Industrial Complex that President Dwight Eisenhower tried to warn us about. In turn, the Russians and Chinese can use the threat of US aggression to keep their citizens in line.

Not only is Joe Biden’s policy of sticking it to the Russians failing to achieve peace, it is actually raising tensions with Russia and encouraging Russian aggression. For instance, the Polish Defense Minister, Marcin Ociepa, told the Polish newspaper DGP that there is now a serious risk of war with Russia, possibly within 3 to 10 years. Latvia is considering banning Russian language instruction in its schools, which shows that this is not just an effort to stop Putin’s aggression, but a war against the Russian people as well; we could cite many more examples. Since President Putin casts himself as the big brother protector of ethnic Russians around the globe, this is the sort of move that would encourage him to make more trouble in Eastern Europe. So much for Joe Biden’s claim that his efforts to stick it to the Russians are all about human rights.

When you find yourself to the right of people like Tayyip Erdogan, the dictator of Turkey, you need to think long and hard about what you believe and why. Speaking to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, President Erdogan said, “I can clearly say that I do not find the attitude of the West towards Russia right. Because there is a West that follows a policy based on provocation. I don’t have to name names, but there are several Western countries whose approach, we think, are incorrect.” 

The following is the sort of quote you would expect to see from people like Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, or any number of Democratic politicians. But no, again, this is from the President of Turkey: “There are no winners in a war like this, but I think there are a great number of losers. People are losing their lives, and there is also the financial cost.” It’s really interesting how Democrats who believed that George Bush was the Antichrist for leading us into war with Iraq are now silent when Joe Biden is doing the escalation. The problem is, too many Democrats are OK with wars when their side is doing it. It’s only when the other side is in charge when they suddenly start thinking about the loss of life and the financial cost.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who made the announcement that Joe Biden would be printing $675 billion more in weapons to Ukraine, pledged US help “over a long period of time.” How long? 10 years? That was the length of time we spent trying to prop up the government of South Vietnam. 20 years? That is how long we spent trying to prop up the government of Afghanistan. We have no idea when this will end, and the US is not even trying to find a way to end this conflict. So much for Joe Biden being more competent than the man he replaced.

President Joe Biden loves to talk about his “Rules Based International Order” and how Russia is now a pariah state. But Joe Biden’s escalation of the conflict is actually having the opposite effect. Far from splitting Russia and China, it is driving them into each other’s arms. Trade between the two is now expected to reach $200 billion. More and more Chinese companies are now openly declaring their intentions to do business in Russia. India, despite the US and its allies claiming veto power over its sovereignty, is stepping up purchases of Russian oil. Algeria is announcing new partnerships with Russia in startups, technology, and IT. Trade between those two countries doubled in 2021 and is up to $3 billion.

So we have another round of failed policies that is only making the world a less safe place. Joe Biden’s escalation in Ukraine is driving up prices, increasing the danger of nuclear war, creating more debt, alienating allies, and driving other countries into the arms of Russia. The US is no longer the world’s policeman. It is time to take care of our own people instead of trying to solve other countries’ problems.

Editorial -- Supply Chain Disruptions

On Saturday, Radio Iowa reported that economic growth has slowed in Iowa and in the Midwest during August. Hiring has dropped, and a new poll of supply managers found that 58.6% said their biggest concern was supply chain disruptions. Labor shortage was named by 24.1%, and inflation was named by 10.4%.

While gas prices have tapered off from recent all time highs, food prices are still too high, and inflation remains at above 6%, far too high. Confidence levels in 2022 are at the worst since the 2008-2009 recession, which is a worrying sign.

But instead of taking concrete steps to stop the supply chain disruptions, addressing inflation, and rallying the country behind a common purpose, Joe Biden shows by his own actions that he doesn’t care. He’s continuing to pursue his vendetta against Russia at the cost of Ukrainian lives, continuing to humor Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her vendetta against China, and he’s not doing one thing to address these issues. He’s printing the money to arm Taiwan and Ukraine instead of trying to repair critical infrastructure at home, and he’s expecting us not to notice. And then he wonders why nobody likes him.

But I suppose it’s a lot easier for politicians like Joe Biden to try and solve other countries’ problems than it is to solve our own here at home.

And if Nancy Pelosi gets her way and gets her war with China, then these supply chain disruptions will be much, much worse. Not that it matters to someone like her. People like Nancy Pelosi have gotten too powerful. That is why we need turn limits in this country.

Editorial -- Joe Biden Prints Money for Taiwan Arms

The path towards a four front war continues. On Friday, the Biden Administration formally notified Congress of their intent to sell radars, anti-ship, and anti-aircraft missiles to Taiwan worth $1.1 billion. Some of that money would have come in awfully handy for fixing our pothole infested roads here in Northwest Missouri. 

And instead of doing the hard work needed to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, the politicians in Washington are looking at ways of making it easier to deliver such weapons to Ukraine and Taiwan. This is a tragedy waiting to happen. In the 1980's, the US sent weapons to Afghanistan in an effort to drive the USSR out and to overthrow the government there. Those weapons were later used on us, and some of the very allies we were helping attacked our country on 9/11. But I suppose it's a lot easier for the politicians in Washington to solve other peoples' problems than it is to solve our own.

The safeguards regarding weapons deliveries to foreign entities were put in place for a reason. How do we know that the weapons that Joe Biden is printing money for won't fall into the wrong hands? How do we know that Taiwan won't suddenly become the enemy down the road, like Osama Bin Laden? How do we know that these weapons won't fall into the hands of the Chinese when we decide 20 years down the road that propping up the regime in Taiwan is no longer sustainable?

And Joe Biden offers no way to pay for these new weapons shipments. And I didn't get a bill from the IRS. So apparently, he is just going to print the money to pay for it, no questions asked. 

Editorial -- Group of 50 Begs for War With Iran

While Joe Biden continues to play nuclear chicken with Russia and escalate the conflict there, and Nancy Pelosi grandstands for war with China over Taiwan, a third group of people, 50 congresspeople led by Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), is clamoring for war with Iran.

In 2018, President Donald Trump tore up the Iran Deal, one of the signature achievements of the Obama Administration, and three times brought us to the brink of war. In 2020, Joe Biden ran on a platform of returning to that deal, which he has been dragging his feet on ever since. For anyone who thinks that our belief that the US is sleepwalking into a four front war with Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea is far-fetched, Mr. Gottheimer’s letter is an eye opener. 

His logic is that Iran and paramilitary allies like the Revolutionary Guard are state sponsors of terrorism and thus can’t be trusted. But assuming that he is correct, that makes it all the more important that we have a verifiable agreement in place to ensure that Iran can never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. 

And even if Iran is supportive of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, it is not in Russia’s interest to have a nuclear armed neighbor to its south. Russia started two wars, in Afghanistan in 1979 and in Ukraine this year, based on their belief that nuclear missiles were about to be stationed on their border five minutes from Moscow. If Iran suddenly fell to a coup and a new government was hostile to Moscow, the same thing would happen. There has been plenty of unrest in Iran in recent years, so this scenario is not far fetched.

The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have drained the US treasury of trillions of dollars in reserves that could have been used to build roads and bridges, fund schools, and create energy independence from the likes of Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Given that Iran is three times the population, the cost of prosecuting such a war, even if the US were not already on the brink of war with Russia and China, would be astronomical. How does Mr. Gottheimer and his gang of 50 propose to pay for such a war? He won’t say, let alone what sacrifices we should be expected to make in the event that war breaks out between the US and Iran.

Editorial -- More Evidence Pelosi Acting as President

Even if Nancy Pelosi’s stunt in visiting Taiwan doesn’t trigger war with China, the New York Times reported on August 3rd that it seriously risks undermining the Biden Administration’s efforts to protect its allies in Asia. We don’t object to the Biden Administration protecting its allies in NATO and in Asia. We do object to the kind of provocations they have engaged in with regards to China and Taiwan, which open the door to someone like the Speaker of the House harboring delusions that she is the Commander in Chief.

Experts that the Times talked to note that it was poor judgement on Speaker Pelosi’s part because it allowed China to showcase their military might. American allies were not consulted. For instance, Penny Wong, Foreign Minister of Australia, one of America’s strongest allies in the Pacific, was quoted as saying in the Times, “All parties should consider how they best contribute to deescalating the current tensions, and we all want peace and stability in the Taiwan Straight.”

Good luck with that. China has already announced military exercises in the area, which could be a precursor to an invasion. Even if they are not, a misunderstanding or miscalculation could turn an already tense situation into a shooting war. Or some hotheaded individual that wants to see the US and China at war over Taiwan.

Even Japan, which is totally onboard with the US protecting Taiwan, was not onboard with Pelosi’s political stunt. As quoted in the Times, Ryo Sahashi, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, said that the key was to keep the region stable so that the US and Japan can enhance their security partnership with Taiwan.

Not that it matters to the Neocons who have taken over at Daily Kos. Notwithstanding Joe Biden’s plan to stick it to the Russians by escalating the war between it and Ukraine, they were fawning over Speaker Pelosi’s visit. Here, at last, was the Democrats’ answer to the Republicans posturing as being tough on defense. Let us only hope that this doesn’t cost thousands or millions of lives. They never bothered to consider that the worst case scenario would involve dragging the US into a two front war with Russia and China, one that they cannot win. Germany was regarded as the world’s strongest military during World War II, but even they couldn’t win a two front war.

Australia has done the sensible thing with China, ending a two year diplomatic freeze and has gone out of their way to say that China is not an enemy. They have been increasing trade. All this will do is undermine the hard work that America’s allies are doing to ease tensions. In Australia, the criticism of Pelosi’s visit is unanimous, while for them, they see Joe Biden as a weak leader, given that he either could not or would not persuade Speaker Pelosi to cancel.

Or maybe the President didn’t want her to cancel. Maybe he wants to lure China into a protracted war with Taiwan, which would double the profits of the Military Industrial Complex while making him look tough on defense. This would be par for the course for US foreign policy, given that they lured Russia into a protracted conflict in Afghanistan in 1979 and in Ukraine this year.

Of course, gas and oil prices would skyrocket, as would everything else. Even if it didn’t turn into a shooting war between the US and China. The supply chain issues that would result would dwarf the ones that were created by the COVID pandemic. Good luck getting anything we need or want at the store. There is a very real risk that the economy would enter into a depression, since spending would drop to a standstill. 

Editorial -- Nancy Pelosi Wants War With China

So apparently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now thinks she is the President. As part of a tour of Asia – something that normally presidents do – CNN reports as of Monday afternoon that she is expected to visit Taiwan, along with four other congresspeople. The Wall Street Journal reported this as well.

If Russia is the clear and present danger to Europe that Putin’s biggest critics charge, then what is Speaker Pelosi doing throwing gas on an already tense situation between the US and China, two nuclear powers, over Taiwan, a place that the US acknowledges is part of China? All this does is risk dragging the US into a two front war between the US, Russia, and China, one that they cannot win. And it could turn into a four front war if Iran and North Korea decide to take advantage of the situation. Or maybe Speaker Pelosi, who has access to classified intelligence that we don’t, knows something we don’t. Maybe the threat from Russia has been blown completely out of proportion.

Those who point to parallels between now and the late 1930’s, when Nazi Germany was threatening to unleash war, miss a key difference – the US, Russia, and China are all nuclear powers. Nobody would win such a war. We’d all burn. That is why the US and Russia, back when saner heads were in power, got together in 1987 and agreed that such a war must never be fought. Putin is a bully, but he is not suicidal.

And this illustrates the wrongheadedness of Joe Biden’s policy of sticking it to the Russians and simultaneously escalating tensions with China, Iran, and North Korea. Even if he wouldn’t personally start a war between the US and any of these countries, the next President might. For instance, Hillary Clinton (D) and John Bolton (R) never met a war they didn’t like. And there are always wanna-be presidents like Speaker Pelosi who are more than happy to escalate already high tensions between the US and China. In 1914, it took one hotheaded person to plunge Europe into war.

Editorial -- Joe Biden’s Four Front War?

So apparently, not content with sticking it to the Russians anymore, Joe Biden is escalating tensions against even more enemies. First, he is sending arms to Taiwan, which China views as sovereign territory, and daring them to invade. There is always a threat that North Korea’s missile tests will flare into open warfare. The battle in Ukraine rages on, with both sides thinking they are winning.

Now, egged on by Israel and Saudi Arabia, Joe Biden says that the US is prepared to “use all elements of its national power” to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Yes, the same Saudi regime that chops peoples’ heads off like ISIS did, and which invades neighbors it doesn’t like, like Putin does. Yes, the same regime which produced 15 of the 19 hijackers who were involved in the 9/11 attacks.

Even if none of Iran, Russia, China, or North Korea were nuclear armed powers, this would be a drastic overextension of US power. Israel is a nuclear power. If Iran is such a clear and present danger, then let Israel launch an attack on Iran and dismantle its nuclear program. The fact is that we simply can’t afford to get involved in a two front war, let alone the four front war that Joe Biden is sleepwalking us into.

And this is a simple matter of right and wrong. Mr. Biden had an opportunity to rectify his predecessor’s sabotage of the Iran Deal, one of the best achievements of the Obama Administration. But the fact that he is escalating tensions with Iran means that Mr. Biden is a lot more like Donald Trump than he cares to admit. The only things missing are the mean tweets and the mobs willing to storm the Capitol if they don’t get their way. Keeping one’s word is essential in politics or any other profession. No wonder relations between the US and countries like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, none of which we can afford a war with, are deteriorating. And no wonder nobody likes Mr. Biden.

Chris Hedges, a former Middle East bureau chief for the New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize winner, notes that if war were to break out between the US and Iran, 2 million Shiites throughout the Middle East would join the war against the US. Iran would use its missiles to shut down the Straight of Hormuz, which is the corridor for 20% of the world’s oil, driving up oil prices to $500 to $750 a barrel, meaning gas prices could go up to as high as $20 a gallon.

And Mr. Hedges notes that the US would have a hard time winning a war against Iran alone, let alone three other powers like Russia, China, and North Korea. In 2002, the US spent $250 million to simulate a war with Iran, in which kamikaze attacks destroyed 16 US warships in under 20 minutes. They tried to change the rules so that Iran couldn’t shoot down our aircraft, while the US had access to some weapons that don’t exist, such as airborne laser weapons. The last military commander who played around with divisions and weapons that didn’t exist was named Adolf Hitler in the last days of his Third Reich. Despite their “wonder weapons,” the US still couldn’t win thanks to the guerilla tactics of the Iranians.

And none of these exercises took into account what would happen in a two front war, let alone a four front war. And they also didn’t take into account the fact that Iran has one of the biggest drone fleets in the world.

About Face by Big Brother on China

Those of us who grew up in the 1980's were told to be very very afraid of the Big Bad Russians who were coming to take away our freedoms and indoctrinate us in the Communist way of life. But it is now the case that some of the same interests who were so hawkish on the Russians now have turned a blind eye on China and their massive abuses of human rights in Tibet. In Orwell's world, this was par for the course. For 3-4 years or so, Eastasia was the enemy. Then, all of a sudden, Eurasia was the enemy. Those who inconveniently remembered that Eastasia was the enemy once upon a time mysteriously disappeared.

We see the same thing with China. Right after the Tinnamen Square Massacre, George H.W. Bush abruptly started pushing for free trade with China -- something we never would have dreamed of doing with the old Soviet Union. This was a policy that was continued by Clinton and subsequent presidents. Of course, certain powerful corporate interests are happy with that arrangement -- they see more and more opportunities to outsource labor and open up markets abroad. So stuff like the Chinese government's religious persecution of Falun Gong or the Tibetans gets swept under the rug by the powerful corporate media.

Of course, inconvenient stories like this one about 70 Tibetans who get arbitrarily arrested get swept underneath the rug by the corporate media. But this sort of thing cannot be ignored forever. The Tibetans simply are not going to go away and it is only a matter of time before dictatorships like China's collapse, as much as certain corporate interests like to pretend otherwise. We learned that from Eastern Europe. And it is only a matter of time, whether it be tomorrow or 100 years down the road, before the Tibet situation comes to a head. The Chinese government, under Chairman Mao, invaded and overran a sovereign nation in the 1950's and there is still a lot of living memory of that incident. No colony can sustain itself without the consent of the governed; we learned that in the Revolutionary War.

We should, of course, cultivate good relations with all countries. But we should not pretend that we have much in common with the Chinese dictatorship, which lacks a basic respect for freedom of speech, thought, and religion. To pretend otherwise amounts to a basic denial of reality.

Obama Accused of Morphing Into Cheney

Michael Klare in Tom's Dispatch compares Obama to Bush in his appetite for military action. He quotes foreign policy people as calling him "George Bush on Steroids."
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Obama protested the Bush involvement in Iraq, saying he was not against all wars, but against "dumb wars." In his view, Bush expended thousands of American lives when he could have used technology -- drones, targeted strikes, assassinations, covert operations -- to accomplish the same objectives.
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Obama's rationale is clear -- he rationalizes that he is saving lives through these methods by using technology and black ops that would have required a multiple-front war in previous times. Or Vietnam on a worldwide scale.
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As for energy policy, Cheney believed that oil was so fundamental to the world's economy that it was sometimes necessary for the US to go to war to prevent someone else from controlling the world's oil supplies. He was one of the pushers for war against Saddam both times.
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This sort of thinking has led to out of control deficits; after all, the ends justified the means in Cheney's view.
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The unemployment problem could be solved tomorrow if we wanted to solve it. Simply take all the money that is being waged on all these covert wars and use it to rehire every teacher, policeman, and firefighter laid off since Bush/Cheney took office in 2001 and the unemployment rate would drop below 7.
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Obama is now mimicking Cheney's geopolitical oil games in many respects, such as his boasting about more and more offshore drilling. In fact, we have opened more than 75% of our potential offshore oil and gas resources for drilling under Obama, as he himself said this year in his State of the Union Address.
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The article goes on to talk about Obama's plan of expanding our network of bases and alliances surrounding China. It is ironic that Vietnam is included in this network, given that we fought a war against them just one generation ago.
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This is dangerous brinksmanship on Obama's part, given the fact that the UN was formed by the five major powers after World War II -- the US, UK, France, USSR, and China. It was formed to prevent a third world war and was set up in a way that requires the Big Five to cooperate in order to get things done. While we can and should take a stand against human rights abuses in China and everywhere, we must also engage in a cooperative relationship with our other four partners.
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Klaire concludes:

But as history suggests, engaging in aggressive global geopolitical confrontations with other determined, well-armed players usually leads to friction, crisis, war, and disaster.
In this regard, Cheney’s geopolitical maneuvering led us into two costly Middle Eastern wars while heightening tensions with both China and Russia.  President Obama claims he seeks to build a more peaceful world, but copying the Cheney energy blueprint is bound to produce the exact opposite.
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Brinksmanship over cooperation and reliance on oil over developing new forms of energy means less and less money domestically to build roads and bridges, maintain adequate funding for our schools, and preserving our national infrastructure, and hiring more teachers, firefighters, and police. But that has been the Washington Way since 1945 even as it fundamentally undermines our way of life.

McCaskill Sees Results in Effort to Combat Chinese Trade Practices

Weeks after visiting a Sedalia steel wheels plant where she expressed support for a trade case against China, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today showcased the positive impact on American jobs that is resulting from recent work to combat illegal Chinese trade practices.  She also stressed the need to enforce the judgements of trade cases.   

In a letter to chief customs official David Aguilar, McCaskill pointed out recent evidence that Chinese companies are shipping jobs back to the U.S. after being forced to compete fairly with other manufacturers by the International Trade Commission.    

“This shows that when the playing field is level, the U.S. will outwork and outcompete China,” McCaskill said. “The problem is that a foreign government like China’s continues to do everything it can to cheat the system, and so I’m going to keep up the pressure on both China, and federal officials here in the U.S. to make sure everyone is playing by the same rules.”

Currently, if the Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission find that a Chinese company has engaged in unfair trade practices, those companies can be penalized through tariffs on their goods. Some Chinese companies have responded by moving their production to the United States and creating American jobs. 

Unfortunately, a number of malicious companies have sprung up offering to help foreign companies evade the tariff penalties through mislabeling, smuggling or other means.  Sen. McCaskill has been working with her colleagues to crack down on this problem.  In her letter, she warns that, if Chinese companies believe they can get away with smuggling, it will undermine job growth in the U.S.

McCaskill called on Aguilar to continue the American crackdown on such practices by foreign governments.

“Customs has taken some steps in the right direction, but needs to do more to stop this kind of evasion,” McCaskill wrote in her letter.  

McCaskill has been an outspoken leader in the fight against unfair trade practices in China, introducing the FAIR Enforcement Against Duty Evasion Act, which would help strength enforcement matters.

McCaskill has also stood up for Missouri manufacturers, testifying in Congress in support of a trade action filed against them by a Maxion Wheels of Sedalia, Missouri, and visiting the plant in April as part of her Fighting for Fairness tour.

A copy of McCaskill’s letter is available HERE.

McCaskill Leads Bipartisan Effort to Prevent Foreign Regulation of the Internet

Senator Claire McCaskill is spearheading an effort in the U.S. Senate aimed at blocking the United Nations or foreign governments from regulating the internet.

Citing the potential impacts on internet freedom and on technology jobs in the U.S., McCaskill has joined with Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, in taking leadership on this issue. The two have introduced a Senate resolution to make clear that the United States opposes allowing any international body or foreign country to have jurisdiction over internet management or regulation.  

Non-profit, non-governmental entities currently regulate and oversee the Internet, keeping the global network out of reach of any one government or international body. However, recent proposals—including some by the governments of Russia, China, and Iran—would turn some of the most critical Internet functions over to the United Nations, which could negatively affect innovation and dramatically expand the power of foreign countries to limit or censor speech within their borders.

“The technology sector is a true bright spot in our economy today, and now is no time to impose international regulations that could restrict growth,” McCaskill said.  “And beyond the economic impacts, I’m not interested in giving oppressive regimes an even greater ability to restrict what their citizens can see, hear, share, and communicate.”

Similar resolutions have been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, affirming that the United States should preserve, enhance, and increase access to an open, global internet.

The resolutions come ahead of a December meeting of the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations agency responsible for communication technologies. The conference is tasked with renegotiating the International Telecommunications Regulations, which provide a framework for global telecommunications, and have not been amended since being written in 1988.

A copy of McCaskill’s bipartisan resolution is available on her website, HERE.

McCaskill: Lax Enforcement of Trade Laws Hurting Missouri Companies

Continuing her fight to ensure Missouri companies get fair treatment under U.S. trade laws, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today wrote to administration officials calling on their agencies to better enforce the laws already on the books. McCaskill’s letter comes on the heels of several recent articles in the St. Louis Post Dispatch highlighting how Chinese companies are evading U.S. tariffs imposed in response to illegal trade practices.

According to the recent news, Chinese companies were penalized with higher duties under U.S. trade law for illegally dumping cheaply made nails on the U.S. market, making it hard for Missouri companies to compete. However, they are now allegedly using third party countries to ship goods to the U.S. and avoid these fees. McCaskill wrote to the director of the United States Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) expressing outrage that the federal government is failing to enforce penalties related to this practice.

“I am extremely frustrated that foreign companies are still flouting U.S. law, despite repeated protests from U.S. companies. As you know, the United States has one of the most open economies in the world, and U.S. companies believe they can compete with anyone on a level playing field. However, the federal government has trade laws to ensure that the playing field is level,” McCaskill wrote.

U.S. companies often spend years and thousands of dollars in legal fees to prove their foreign competetors’ illegal practices before federal trade bodies. Once they prove those allegations, “countervailing duties” (or protective tariffs) are assessed. Two agencies, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are responsible for making sure that the tariffs are, in fact, collected. However, many reports indicate that foreign companies, particularly Chinese companies, are engaged in widespread evasion of these duties. ICE and CBP have not prioritized enforcement of duties.

McCaskill said the lack of attention and enforcement from U.S. trade officials is bad for American businesses and pledged to continue Missouri companies’ fight for fair consideration.

“Situations like this cause American businesses to lose confidence in U.S. trade policies and the federal government as a whole,” she wrote.