Yesterday, Representative John Moolenaar (R-MI) of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, along with House Ways & Means Committee member Tom Suozzi (D-NY), reintroduced a bill in the House of Representatives to revoke Permanent Normal Trade Relations (“PNTR”) with the People’s Republic of China.  When reintroducing the bill, Molenaar cited to Trump’s “America First Trade Policy” memo issued on Monday, which instructed the Department of Commerce and the USTR to assess legislative proposals regarding Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China.

The bipartisan “Restoring Trade Fairness Act” was first introduced in September 2024 as a companion bill to the identical “Neither Permanent nor Normal Trade Relations Act” proposed in the Senate by Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Jim Banks (R-IN) and would revoke China’s PNTR with no annual Congressional recertification vote.  Crowell has published an in-depth summary of these earlier proposals, which were introduced prior to Trump’s inauguration.

The bill would create a new tariff column specifically for Chinese-origin goods, imposing statutory minimum tariffs of 35% for “non-strategic” goods and 100% for “strategic” goods, the latter of which are designated in the bill by HS code and are based upon the Biden administration’s Advanced Technology Product List and China’s Made in China 2025 plan. Under the proposal, the tariffs would be phased in over five years—10% of the increase in year one, 25% in year two, 50% in year four, and 100% in year five.

The bill also has large implications for goods entering the U.S. under Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930—so-called de minimis shipments—including shipments not of Chinese origin. According to the bill’s text, all goods entering from “covered nations” as defined under Section 4872 of title 10 of the United States Code would not be eligible for de minimis treatment. Covered nations include not only the PRC, but also North Korea, the Russian Federation, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Additionally, the bill would require customs brokers for other de minimis shipments.

Finally, the bill would establish a trust fund under the auspices of the U.S. Department of the Treasury to compensate farmers and manufacturers injured by any possible Chinese retaliation to U.S. trade actions, the money for which is to be provided from the increased duties on Chinese goods.  Such an arrangement has some precedent under U.S. law. The Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 (“CDSOA”), which was repealed in 2006, distributed duties assessed from an antidumping or countervailing duty order to affected domestic producers. While the CDSOA was relatively quickly repealed and subject to a number of WTO-disputes, eligible U.S. producers were able to receive significant compensation for harm from unfairly imported goods while the law was in effect.

Crowell & Moring continues to monitor developments in the trade and customs spaces and their impact on businesses.

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Photo of John Brew John Brew

John Brew is the co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He has extensive experience in import and export trade regulation, and he regularly advises corporations, trade associations, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations…

John Brew is the co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He has extensive experience in import and export trade regulation, and he regularly advises corporations, trade associations, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations on matters involving customs administration, enforcement, compliance, litigation, legislation and policy.

John represents clients in proceedings at the administrative and judicial levels, as well as before Congress and the international bureaucracies that handle customs and trade matters. He advises clients on all substantive import regulatory issues handled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, such as classification, valuation, origin, marking, tariff preference programs, other agency regulations, admissibility, import restrictions, quotas, drawback, audits, prior disclosures, penalties, investigations, Importer Self Assessment and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism programs, importations under bond, the Jones Act, vessel repairs, and foreign trade zone matters.

Photo of Weronika Bukowski Weronika Bukowski

Weronika Bukowski is a counsel in the International Trade Group of Crowell & Moring and resident in the firm’s New York office.

Weronika’s practice focuses on international trade litigation spanning a broad range of issues, including antidumping and countervailing duties, customs-related disputes, duty

Weronika Bukowski is a counsel in the International Trade Group of Crowell & Moring and resident in the firm’s New York office.

Weronika’s practice focuses on international trade litigation spanning a broad range of issues, including antidumping and countervailing duties, customs-related disputes, duty evasion, circumvention, and matters arising under sections 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.  She also advises clients on compliance with sanctions administered by OFAC, export controls in the EAR and the ITAR, the FCPA, U.S. import and customs rules, and other civil and criminal statutes and regulations.

Photo of Andrew J. Schlegel Andrew J. Schlegel

Andrew Schlegel is an international trade analyst III in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office. He provides practice support to the International Trade Group on import regulatory matters pending before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and U.S. Customs and Border

Andrew Schlegel is an international trade analyst III in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office. He provides practice support to the International Trade Group on import regulatory matters pending before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). He works closely with attorneys developing courses of action for clients impacted by investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Andrew also supports unfair trade investigations, including antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations, sunset reviews, and changed circumstance reviews before the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission (ITC).

Prior to joining Crowell & Moring, Andrew worked as an intern at SAP’s Government Affairs Business Development Team in Berlin, Germany. There, he analyzed the effects of regulatory changes on SAP business operations and expansion opportunities. Before this, he completed an internship at the International Trade Administration’s Office of Energy and Environmental Industries. While there, he developed the U.S. Energy Trade Dashboard, an interactive data visualization tool for use by professionals and researchers to analyze how energy supply chains have developed.