“Decades ago, our leaders believed that they could draw a communist-led nation into the American order through economic integration. They were convinced that economic policy was the handmaiden of foreign policy and that trade concessions would induce market reforms and then political reforms. That strategy failed. It never delivered its promised liberalization—instead, it impoverished hundreds of thousands of Americans and enriched the government of the People’s Republic of China. We would be foolish to repeat the same mistake.”
WASHINGTON D.C. – Senators JD Vance (R-OH), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to raise concerns over an ongoing Commerce Department assessment which could determine the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to be a “market economy.”
The granting of such a status would empower Chinese and Vietnamese exporters at the expense of dozens of American industries. Through raising these concerns, the Senators aim to prevent the Biden administration from repeating the failures of the past by making trade concessions to a communist nation in Southeast Asia.
The letter reads, in part:
“We write to express our concerns regarding the U.S. Department of Commerce’s review of the nonmarket economy (NME) status of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The recently announced process defies both normal order and common sense. Vietnam may be an important regional partner, but it does not have a market economy. A hasty decision to graduate Vietnam to market economy status would weaken the enforcement of U.S. trade and national security laws, embolden and advantage the Chinese and Vietnamese communist parties, and hurt American industries and their workers…
“Our industries—from steel to catfish—compete with Vietnamese exporters and rely on Commerce to enforce and uphold U.S. trade laws. In just the last twenty years, over 30 different American industries across at least 35 states have filed petitions against imported goods from Vietnam alleging dumping or circumvention. Anti-dumping and countervailing duty concerns have only gotten worse, with more than half of these lawsuits being filed within the past five years. Granting Vietnam market economy status would allow Vietnamese producers to mask price discrimination in the American market and further tip the scales in their favor…
“Decades ago, our leaders believed that they could draw a communist-led nation into the American order through economic integration. They were convinced that economic policy was the handmaiden of foreign policy and that trade concessions would induce market reforms and then political reforms. That strategy failed. It never delivered its promised liberalization—instead, it impoverished hundreds of thousands of Americans and enriched the government of the People’s Republic of China. We would be foolish to repeat the same mistake.”
Read the full letter here and below.
###