Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to President Joe Biden (D) regarding China’s manufacturing practices that have allowed them to participate in the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) free trade agreement. The Asian superpower has moved its manufacturing plants to Mexico, benefitting from the agreement and avoiding U.S. tariffs in the process.
In the letter, Sens. Rubio, Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Bob Casey (D-PA) outlined the necessity to end China’s practice of “nearshoring” near the southern border.
“It has been well documented that hundreds of multinational firms are shifting their production facilities from Asia to Mexico. This ‘nearshoring’ is a consequence of U.S. tariffs on China, a risky and dwindling Chinese economy, and supply chain woes,” Rubio and the senators wrote. “While bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. is preferred, and policymakers should prioritize this objective, it is also a welcomed trend when Western companies bring manufacturing back to the Western Hemisphere writ large. Unfortunately, Chinese firms are exploiting this nearshoring trend to avoid paying tariffs on goods they export to the U.S. market.”
Furthermore, the Florida senator added that Chinese trade practices are actively “threatening American production” by abusing the USMCA.
“Allowing Chinese firms—which routinely benefit from slave labor, stolen intellectual property, and massive state subsidies—to circumvent American trade enforcement and exploit our free trade agreements threatens American production … Congress passed a free trade deal with Mexico—not China. Immediate action must be taken to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from exploiting USMCA and weaponizing this important trade deal,” wrote Rubio and the other senators.
They also mentioned that there is no reason to strike these trade deals with American allies such as Mexico and Canada if they “are not paired with effective enforcement.” Moreover, Rubio writes that the independence of Mexico’s judiciary, stronger security policy, and the “enforcement of immigration laws" are paramount to maintaining the trade agreement.
Finally, the senators asked for President Biden’s response by Oct. 11. Within that response, they requested his plans to combat this issue, as well as a list of the Mexican subsidies to Chinese firms.
