Texas 2017 - 85th Regular

Texas House Bill HCR98 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	85R15174 KSM-D
2	2	By: Blanco H.C.R. No. 98
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5	5	CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
6	6	WHEREAS, The White House has raised the prospect of a
7	7	substantial tax on imports from Mexico, but economists and business
8	8	leaders have warned that such a measure would have a severe negative
9	9	impact; and
10	10	WHEREAS, Although the imposition of tariffs is intended to
11	11	make American companies more competitive, the benefits are both
12	12	limited and outweighed by numerous and substantial risks, according
13	13	to economists across the political spectrum; this is the case
14	14	whether tariffs are imposed directly or through a border-adjusted
15	15	tax that subsidizes exports; and
16	16	WHEREAS, Any border tax would hurt U.S. consumers; tariffs
17	17	are effectively paid by the purchasers of goods, and as imported
18	18	goods became more expensive, so would any domestic goods that are
19	19	reasonable substitutes; in turn, the cost of living would soar,
20	20	affecting lower-income Americans the most, as they spend a higher
21	21	percentage of their income on goods, especially those produced
22	22	abroad; and
23	23	WHEREAS, Costs would also rise for U.S. manufacturers of
24	24	products that incorporate materials made in Mexico and subject to a
25	25	border tax; the enactment of tariffs could cause delays or price
26	26	spikes that spiral through the economy and interrupt complex,
27	27	time-sensitive supply chains; any slowdown could mean layoffs among
28	28	producers and damage to the broader U.S. economy; and
29	29	WHEREAS, Jobs would also be lost because of the inevitable
30	30	decline in the value of the Mexican peso; the loss of purchasing
31	31	power by our trading partner would lead to a drop in U.S. exports,
32	32	thereby putting Americans out of work; this would cause havoc in
33	33	both the Mexican and U.S. economies, according to former U.S.
34	34	Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, now a Harvard University
35	35	economist, who said that "it would be one of the best things that
36	36	ever happened for Asian and European competitors"; and
37	37	WHEREAS, If the United States imposes a tariff, Mexico will
38	38	no doubt retaliate, resulting in a pernicious trade war; most
39	39	experts believe that this would deliver a significant blow to the
40	40	economy, and Peter Petri, a professor of international finance at
41	41	Brandeis University, has suggested it could take years to rebuild
42	42	supply chains disrupted by such conflict; Simon Johnson, a
43	43	professor of entrepreneurship at MIT's Sloan School of Management,
44	44	has cautioned that the impact would be "much worse than a
45	45	recession," and more on the scale of a full-blown financial crisis;
46	46	Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz has offered the example
47	47	of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, signed into law by President Herbert
48	48	Hoover in 1930, which sparked a trade war that devastated the global
49	49	economy; and
50	50	WHEREAS, A border tax would be particularly crushing in
51	51	Texas; Mexico is far and away our state's top trading partner, as
52	52	the Texas Association of Business observed in speaking out against
53	53	an import tariff; in 2015, trade between Texas and Mexico amounted
54	54	to over $176.5 billion, representing more than a third of our total
55	55	trade, with a surplus of $8 billion on our side; as of 2014, almost
56	56	400,000 Texas jobs depended on that trade, according to the Wilson
57	57	Center Mexico Institute; some Texas businesses have already
58	58	suffered due to the mere threat of a trade war, which has driven the
59	59	peso to a near all-time low and weakened the purchasing power of
60	60	potential customers from Mexico; the effect has been particularly
61	61	troubling in such border communities as El Paso, where one in every
62	62	four jobs relies on cross-border trade; and
63	63	WHEREAS, In 2015, Texas imported $84 billion from Mexico, and
64	64	with a 20 percent tariff, businesses and consumers would have paid
65	65	$16.8 billion more for the same goods and services; residents
66	66	particularly depend on the availability of agricultural products
67	67	from Mexico, and a border tax would drive up the cost of healthful
68	68	fruits and vegetables; moreover, many large-scale agricultural
69	69	concerns in Mexico are owned by American companies; and
70	70	WHEREAS, Trade has historically been an engine of prosperity,
71	71	benefiting consumers and businesses alike; Mexico is the nation's
72	72	third-largest trading partner, and a tariff or border-adjusted tax
73	73	on imports would drastically suppress commerce, to the tremendous
74	74	detriment of our state and nation; now, therefore, be it
75	75	RESOLVED, That the 85th Legislature of the State of Texas
76	76	hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress and the United
77	77	States president to reject the imposition of an import tax or border
78	78	adjustment tax on trade with Mexico; and, be it further
79	79	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
80	80	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
81	81	the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
82	82	Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
83	83	members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
84	84	this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
85	85	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.