No Trade Preferences for Communist China Act

Key Points

• The bill would end China's permanent normal trade relations status, which it has had since 2001, and instead apply much higher 'column 2' tariff rates to Chinese goods 90 days after the law takes effect.
• The higher tariffs would apply to products from mainland China as well as Hong Kong and Macau, and the President would also get authority to raise those tariff rates even further.
• Congress cites massive estimated losses from Chinese tariff evasion and intellectual property theft as justification, claiming these actions cost the U.S. economy between $180 billion and $540 billion a year.
• The bill points to the loss of 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs and 90,000 factories since 1994 as evidence that China's trade status has hurt American industry.
• Sponsors argue China's recent threats to restrict rare earth mineral exports and its actions in the South China Sea justify invoking a national security exception under WTO rules to revoke its trade status, similar to what was done to Russia in 2022.