Trade

Trade is a vital and critical component of Utah’s economy. At the turn of the 20th century, the transcontinental railroad made Ogden, Utah the crossroads of the West and helped turn the United States into the wealthiest and most prosperous economy in global history. In 2023 alone, Utah companies exported $17.4 billion of goods across the world, which supported over 50,000 jobs across the state. 

As a Member of the Ways and Means Committee, which holds jurisdiction on all trade policy matters in the House, I am committed to ensuring that U.S. trade policy helps Utah businesses find new opportunities in overseas markets for decades to come. However, the United States also must pay close attention to bad foreign actors like China who seek to disrupt American industries, establish unfair market dominance in key sectors, and break apart the rules-based trading system. 

On one hand, this means leveraging tariffs in certain sectors like steel and aluminum and anti-dumping measures to respond to IP theft and illegal subsidies. On the other hand, this means negotiating new and enforceable trade agreements that create new opportunities with allies (for example, the United Kingdom and Japan) to set standards in sectors like IP protection, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. I also believe Congress should continue looking for ways to strengthen and modernize the successful United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA),  which has helped Utahns working in agriculture, technology, and other fields thrive thanks to lower barriers to trade and better market access with Canada and Mexico. 

From my position on the House Ways and Means Committee, I’ve supported the renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences program, which has promoted economic development between the United States and 100+ lower-income countries for over 50 years. It has also been a key foreign policy tool to strengthen our supply chain resiliency and reduce overdependency on China, America’s most serious long-term geopolitical challenge. 

As China grows in their ambition and aggression on the world stage, the United States must use every policymaking tool at its disposal to shore up our own economic and security interests and maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR), which provides foreign countries with most favored nation status and preferential access to the U.S. market, is one such tool that Congress can leverage to ensure a potential conflict scenario never happens. 

 To prevent a crisis in the Taiwan Strait, I introduced the DETER Act of 2024, which would revoke China’s PNTR status with the United States if the PRC engages in an act of military aggression or serious economic coercion (i.e., a blockade) that violates the sovereignty or territorial integrity of Taiwan. This bill builds upon Senator James Lankford’s (R-OK) DETER Act of 2023 and serves as its House companion.