OPINION:
The Trump administration woke us from a fantasy generated by academic elites and Wall Street bankers — that open trade with China would produce wealth for everyday Americans and usher in an age of enlightenment in Beijing.
Of course, the opposite materialized as the Chinese Communist Party exploited our policies and pursued predatory trade practices, which sent countless manufacturing jobs overseas. Our supply chain became dependent on their whims, and our transferred wealth was used to strengthen China’s authoritarian ambitions.
The COVID-19 pandemic perfectly illustrated the vulnerabilities we created by relying on the CCP, and a strategic course correction is now in order. Enhancing our economic security is necessary to deter any aggression from Beijing, and achieving this goal will require a comprehensive America First strategy.
First, we must do no harm to ourselves. American businesses already operate under the strictest standards in the world while bearing some of the highest tax burdens in the world. Instituting a domestic carbon tax or new regulatory schemes would be regressive, hindering the American worker.
Throughout my time in Congress, I have firmly opposed domestic carbon pricing and excessive regulatory schemes because they are counterproductive. They penalize excellence.
Second, Congress should recognize the necessity of permitting and regulatory reforms to enable the building of infrastructure needed to attract investment in manufacturing and key components of the supply chain. We need certainty and efficiency so that critical minerals, oil and natural gas can be cleanly extracted and transported.
We need bolstered electricity capacity and transmission lines. We need next-generation refineries and export facilities to increase American supply on the global market. Our extraction, exporting and consumption needs will not be met by our decrepit permitting processes.
Third, U.S. companies cannot absorb losses year after year in a bid to destroy their foreign competition, unlike the CCP’s state-owned enterprises. We need smart, targeted federal assistance in cases where our firms face direct competition from predatory, non-market Chinese industries.
But America should not wage a subsidy war it cannot win. China has virtually unlimited financial resources, allowing it to endure protracted costs for long-term gains, as well as a menu of actions unavailable to us, including relaxing environmental enforcement and making use of forced labor.
Finally, building our manufacturing base and supply chains will necessitate a new trade policy designed to protect and enhance public and private sector investments. U.S. policymakers should expect the CCP to leverage its market power in global trade to neutralize or destroy attempts to revitalize U.S. industry or decouple America from China.
This is why I have proposed a new framework, in coordination with our allies, that would increase our international competitiveness by rewarding U.S. industry for its environmental performance and punishing countries like China for their pollution that negatively affects America. In so doing, we can level the playing field for U.S. companies by imposing restrictions on countries like China that monetize their environmental irresponsibility by dumping cheap crap on the markets.
I echo what former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said at a recent House Select Committee hearing on the CCP: “I would want to see people come together and have some kind of a carbon border adjustment, not a carbon tax. I’m not for that, but a carbon border adjustment … there’s a lot of things you can do with allies that I think is helpful.”
Building this comprehensive approach will not be easy, demanding the political will of both Democrats and Republicans. Resurrecting U.S. manufacturing and recreating a position of economic dominance is the best way to avoid a military conflict with China.
Just recently, we learned that Chinese military planners are focused on how they can sink a U.S. aircraft carrier while the CCP’s leadership has been saber rattling over Taiwan and the South China Sea to spook America and its Asia Pacific allies. Undercutting their aspirations can happen only when the U.S. and our allies stop enabling their supply chain dominance.
The United States should be clear-eyed about our past folly and the mistakes made regarding the Chinese Communist Party. It’s time we pursue a wide-ranging U.S. manufacturing overhaul, leveraging an America First trade agenda to create a competitive advantage for U.S. industry and return manufacturing jobs to our shores.
When we enhance our economic security and detangle ourselves from China’s control of supply chains, America will send a strong message to Xi Jinping’s dictatorship that we now understand the CCP’s game.
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
• Kevin Cramer is an American politician who has served as the junior U.S. senator for North Dakota since 2019.
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