One Pager May 2019

Global Trade Accountability Act of 2019

The Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to “regulate commerce with foreign nations,” and
“to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.” However, Congress has chosen over the years to
delegate some of this authority to the executive branch for the purpose of reducing trade barriers and
protecting against unfair export practices. Some of those delegated authorities have recently proven
vulnerable to abuse, however, as the executive has actually raised barriers to free trade.

Most of the authorities currently used to unilaterally increase tariffs are Cold War-era statutes
originally designed to increase market access and counter foreign aggression from powers like the
Soviet Union. Actions that significantly increase trade barriers risk seriously damaging our current
trade relations and often directly increase consumer costs. The “Global Trade Accountability Act of
2019” seeks to return some trade authority to Congress as a way of clarifying the intent of such
statutes, and in order to establish an appropriate constitutional check against potentially damaging
unilateral decisions from the executive branch to increase trade barriers.

Bill Specifics
The Global Trade Accountability Act would require that proposed “unilateral trade actions” by the
President be subject to a congressional approval process before they could take effect. The bill would
only cover unilateral trade actions by the President to increase trade barriers. “Unilateral trade
actions” in this legislation are defined as any increases in tariffs or duties (reductions in tariffs would
not require congressional approval), tightening of tariff-rate quotas or quantitative restrictions on
imports, and other restrictions or prohibitions on imports. This new Congressional review process
would be applied to any unilateral trade action by the President that is invoked under the following
trade law provisions:
 Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917
 Tariff Act of 1930:
o Sec. 338, Discrimination by Foreign Countries
 Trade Expansion Act of 1962:
o Sec. 232, Safeguarding National Security
 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)
 Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (TPA) Sec. 103(a)
 Trade Act of 1974
o Sec. 122, Balance of Payments Authority
o Chapter 1 of Title II, Industries facing injury from imports, (includes Sec. 201 actions)
o Title III, Relief from Unfair Trade Practices (includes Sec. 301 actions)
o Sec. 406, Market Disruption
 Any provision of law enacted to implement a trade agreement to which the United States is a
party, including all our current free trade agreements.

The bill would not cover preference programs like the General System of Preferences (GSP),
Miscellaneous Tariff Bills (MTB), or technical corrections to the harmonized tariff schedule.

For more information concerning this bill or to be added as a cosponsor, please contact Taylor LaJoie
(taylor_lajoie@lee.senate.gov; 4-9231) or Jonathan Coppage (jonathan_coppage@lee.senate.gov; 4-9345).