I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 953
To advance United States long-term trade competitiveness and economic
leadership in the Indo-Pacific region.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY4, 2025
Mrs. M
ILLERof West Virginia (for herself, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. SMITHof Ne-
braska, Mr. B
ERA, Mr. LAHOOD, and Mr. BEYER) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To advance United States long-term trade competitiveness
and economic leadership in the Indo-Pacific region.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘United States Trade 4
Leadership in the Indo-Pacific Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
(1) The United States is an Indo-Pacific power. 8
(2) The Indo-Pacific region, spanning from our 9
Pacific Coastline to the Indian Ocean, is home to 10
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over half the world’s people, including nearly 60 per-1
cent of youth, and is at the center of the 21st-cen-2
tury global economy, accounting for 60 percent of 3
global gross domestic product and two-thirds of the 4
world’s economic growth in 2022. 5
(3) The Indo-Pacific region also includes some 6
of America’s closest military allies and partners, sev-7
eral of the world’s largest militaries, and 5 nations 8
allied with the United States through mutual de-9
fense treaties. The region also contains strategic ri-10
vals with growing military capabilities, in particular 11
the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Our partners 12
are critical for responding to potential threats in the 13
region, maintaining credible deterrence, and for fos-14
tering peace. 15
(4) There is broad bipartisan agreement that 16
the United States must have a strong and durable 17
economic strategy in the Indo-Pacific to advance our 18
commercial, geostrategic, and national security inter-19
ests and support our allies and partners in the re-20
gion. 21
(5) This is especially true and increasingly ur-22
gent in the face of heightened aggression and pres-23
sure from the PRC, which seeks to expand its influ-24
ence by actively pursuing trade agreements with key 25
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partners in the Indo-Pacific that establish pref-1
erential treatment for goods and services, deepen 2
supply chain integration, and establish rules based 3
on the PRC’s state-led authoritarian economic model 4
that undercut America’s workers, businesses, and 5
economic security. 6
(6) For decades, the United States has sought 7
to persuade the PRC to eliminate harmful trade 8
practices and act responsibly within the global rules- 9
based trading system. Unfortunately, the PRC has 10
not substantially changed its behavior and has in-11
stead used forced labor, subsidies and overproduc-12
tion, intellectual property theft and the forced trans-13
fer of technology, authoritarian digital governance 14
policies, economic coercion, and other unfair prac-15
tices to advance an economic model that undermines 16
human rights, American industries and workers, and 17
market-based economies around the world. 18
(7) The PRC is now actively seeking to increase 19
trade ties in the Indo-Pacific region as a means to 20
increase its economic influence and increase supply 21
chain dependency on the PRC. One of the most 22
prominent examples of the PRC’s growing economic 23
influence in the Indo-Pacific region is the Regional 24
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), 25
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which entered into force in January 2022. RCEP is 1
now the largest trade agreement in the world, en-2
compassing 15 countries that account for 30 percent 3
of the global economy. This agreement will increas-4
ingly put the United States at a competitive dis-5
advantage as the economies of the PRC, Australia, 6
Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, 7
Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, 8
Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam grow more inte-9
grated. 10
(8) The PRC is also actively negotiating numer-11
ous other regional and bilateral trade agreements 12
throughout the region and is attempting to accede to 13
the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for 14
Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) as well as the 15
Digital Economic Partnership Agreement (DEPA). 16
(9) The PRC’s aggressive assertion of its eco-17
nomic interests in the Indo-Pacific through the use 18
of trade agreements underscores the need for the 19
United States to provide a meaningful and credible 20
alternative to achieve our economic and national se-21
curity goals. 22
(10) American workers and businesses also face 23
competitive pressures as other countries in the re-24
gion pursue regional rules and preferential trade 25
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agreements without the participation of the United 1
States. There are now more than 200 preferential 2
trade agreements in force with at least one party 3
from the region and over 100 more are under nego-4
tiation or pending ratification. 5
(11) To inform future policymaking, Congress 6
should work with the administration in a bipartisan 7
manner to examine current United States economic 8
policy toward the Indo-Pacific, the impacts of re-9
gional trade agreements on American competitive-10
ness, and policies to advance United States objec-11
tives in the region. 12
(12) Through a more comprehensive trade and 13
economic strategy toward the Indo-Pacific region, 14
the United States could exert greater leverage to im-15
prove labor rights and help level the playing field for 16
American workers, enhance environmental stand-17
ards, counter non-market economies and 18
authoritarianism, construct more resilient supply 19
chains, better meet the needs of our allies and part-20
ners, and grow our economy by addressing barriers 21
to trade for American products. 22
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SEC. 3. INVESTIGATION OF IMPACT OF INDO-PACIFIC RE-1
GIONAL AGREEMENTS ON UNITED STATES 2
COMPETITIVENESS. 3
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-4
ment of this Act, the United States International Trade 5
Commission shall conduct and conclude an investigation 6
to examine— 7
(1) how preferential market access provisions, 8
including tariffs, quotas, and services commitments, 9
in existing Indo-Pacific regional trade agreements, 10
including the Regional Comprehensive Economic 11
Partnership (RCEP) Agreement and the Com-12
prehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pa-13
cific Partnership (CPTPP), affect United States ex-14
ports and growth opportunities in the Indo-Pacific 15
region; 16
(2) how existing non-tariff barriers, including 17
regulatory practices, relatively lower labor and envi-18
ronmental standards, different rules for sectors 19
ranging from agriculture and the digital economy, 20
and standard-setting in these areas as part of exist-21
ing Indo-Pacific regional and bilateral trade agree-22
ments, impact the competitiveness of American 23
workers and businesses; 24
(3) the impact of existing Indo-Pacific regional 25
trade agreements on United States supply chain re-26
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siliency and connectivity, and in particular its im-1
pact on the People’s Republic of China’s role in key 2
global supply chains; and 3
(4) differences between the United States-Mex-4
ico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and CPTPP, 5
RCEP, or other regional trade agreements in the 6
Indo-Pacific that would likely have a substantial im-7
pact on United States businesses and workers. 8
SEC. 4. INDO-PACIFIC TRADE STRATEGY COMMISSION. 9
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is hereby established 11
an independent commission to be known as the 12
‘‘Indo-Pacific Trade Strategy Commission’’ (in this 13
section referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’), to develop 14
findings and recommendations for a comprehensive 15
trade strategy for the Indo-Pacific region for pur-16
poses of— 17
(A) ensuring sustained United States eco-18
nomic and geopolitical leadership in the Indo- 19
Pacific region; 20
(B) promoting United States innovation, 21
exports, and economic opportunities for workers 22
and businesses; 23
(C) countering the People’s Republic of 24
China’s aggressive trade agenda; 25
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(D) promoting United States values, 1
norms, and standards; 2
(E) strengthening the United States econ-3
omy; 4
(F) bolstering United States economic and 5
national security, including by addressing the 6
vulnerabilities identified in the G7 Leaders’ 7
Statement on Economic Resilience and Eco-8
nomic Security of May 20, 2023; and 9
(G) promoting United States supply chain 10
resilience. 11
(2) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—This subsection shall 12
take effect on the date that is 30 days after the date 13
of the enactment of this Act. 14
(b) M
EMBERSHIP.— 15
(1) N
UMBER AND APPOINTMENT .—The Com-16
mission shall be composed of 12 members appointed 17
as follows: 18
(A) 6 members appointed by mutual agree-19
ment of the Chair of the Committee on Ways 20
and Means of the House of Representatives and 21
the Ranking Member of the Committee on Fi-22
nance of the Senate. 23
(B) 6 members appointed by mutual agree-24
ment of the Chair of the Committee on Finance 25
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of the Senate and the Ranking Member of the 1
Committee on Ways and Means of the House of 2
Representatives. 3
(C) None of the appointed members shall 4
be a Member of the House of Representatives 5
or a Member of the Senate. 6
(2) Q
UALIFICATIONS.—The members of the 7
Commission shall be individuals who have well-docu-8
mented expertise, knowledge, or experience in the 9
Indo-Pacific region, and— 10
(A) international trade; 11
(B) economic and supply chain issues; 12
(C) labor matters; or 13
(D) environmental policy. 14
(3) M
EETINGS.—The Commission shall— 15
(A) hold public hearings and meetings; 16
(B) hold classified hearings or meetings, if 17
necessary to discuss classified material or infor-18
mation; 19
(C) provide an opportunity for public com-20
ment, including sharing of research and policy 21
analysis, through publication of a solicitation 22
for public comments during a period of not less 23
than 45 days; 24
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(D) consult quarterly with Congress, spe-1
cifically with members of the Committee on 2
Ways and Means of the House of Representa-3
tives and members of the Committee on Fi-4
nance of the Senate; and 5
(E) submit, not later than 18 months after 6
the date of the enactment of this Act, a final 7
report to Congress, specifically to the members 8
of the Committee on Ways and Means of the 9
House of Representatives and members of the 10
Committee on Finance of the Senate. 11
Æ
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