Source: Blog – Alliance for American Manufacturing
A plater using a pneumatic impact wrench to tighten bolts during construction of a ship in the shipyard of Newport News Shipbuilding, in Newport News, Virginia, circa 1955. Getty Images
Seventy Members of Congress ask the Biden administration to “consider strong and effective remedies” to rebuild America’s languishing shipbuilding sector.
The Congressional Labor Caucus on Friday offered its official support for an ongoing investigation into China’s unfair practices in the shipbuilding industry, urging the Biden administration to “implement resolute measures to remedy decades of unfair and discriminatory policies.”
A coalition of labor unions in March filed a petition with the U.S. Trade Representative calling for a “Section 301” investigation into China’s commercial shipbuilding industry, arguing that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has utilized a whole host of unfair actions to dominate the global industry. USTR officially initiated the investigation in April, and it remains ongoing.
In the meantime, China continues to dominate worldwide shipbuilding. Chinese shipyards produce more than 1,000 ocean-going vessels each year, with the United States putting forth less than 10. That’s a threat to our economic and national security, the Congressional Labor Caucus told President Biden in an Oct. 18 letter:
China’s cheating — and its resulting outsize maritime capacities in the face of our own shipbuilding crisis — has led to our nation’s military leadership sounding the alarm. According to U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, China operates 13 large shipyards, with a single yard representing more capacity than all American yards combined. Even more shockingly, the U.S. Navy estimates that China’s shipbuilding capacity is roughly 232 times greater than the United States’.
This didn’t happen by accident, the lawmakers write. While the United States allowed its own commercial shipbuilding industry to languish, the CCP did everything in its power to seize market share and global control. As they note:
U.S. shipbuilding and maritime supply chain industries have been forced to compete on an uneven playing field, facing shipyards and order books that have benefited from hundreds of billions of dollars of state-directed funding. China’s industry is insulated from market forces, utilizes state-owned enterprises to provide cheap inputs and cut yard production costs, and strengthens the People’s Liberation Army’s Navy with expansive shipbuilding, repair, and maintenance capacities.
Getting things back on track will require “[b]reaking the boom-and-bust cycle that has plagued U.S. shipbuilders” and making significant investments to rebuild a sustainable American shipbuilding industry that is supported by a highly trained workforce, the lawmakers write. Potential remedies included in the petition filed by the labor unions, such as the creation of a U.S. Commercial Shipbuilding Revitalization Fund, offer a good path forward, the Members of Congress add.
“We hope that USTR’s investigation will conclude that China’s predatory actions demonstrate a clear and unambiguous intent to dominate global markets to the detriment of American workers and industry,” they write. “The result of the investigation, with your help, can lead to measures being put in place to restore American capacity in these sectors.”
Leading the letter were Congressional Labor Caucus co-chairs Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), along with Caucus members Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), and Val Hoyle (D-Ore). Additional letter signers can be found here. Click here to read the full letter.
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