House Economic Coercion Bill

Legislation (HR 1135) providing the President with new tools to provide rapid economic support to allies facing economic coercion from China has been introduced in the House.

The Countering Economic Coercion Act of 2023 is the House companion to legislation introduced earlier in the Senate.

Sponsoring the House bill are House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking Democrat Gregory Meeks (NY), House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla) and Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif).

The sponsors said they hope to see the legislation move through Congress with bipartisan support.

The legislation would authorize the President to:

• seek Congressional appropriations to support foreign aid, export financing, and sovereign loan guarantees to foreign partners that are subject to economic coercion;
• expedite export licensing decisions and regulatory processes to facilitate trade with affected foreign partners;
• ! decrease duties on non-import-sensitive goods imported by the United States from foreign partners that are subject to coercion to make up for lost exports;
• increase duties on imports from foreign adversaries committing economic coercion against United States partners and allies an
• waive certain policy requirements to facilitate export financing, allowing the US private sector to meet opportunities in foreign economies suffering from coercion.