King: We Must Prevent Trade Protectionism

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Washington, DC- Congressman Steve King released the following video after questioning witnesses in a committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade hearing today on the harmful impact of Non-Tariff Barriers to farm exports and rural economic growth. King likened the international trade issue to his legislation, the Protect Interstate Commerce Act (PICA). PICA prohibits states from entering into trade protectionism by forcing cost prohibitive production methods on farmers in other states.

To watch Congressman King's full questioning and statement, click here.

"What you have identified Mr. Boyer, is the trade protectionism by regulating the means or method of production. When that happens from a foreign country, we see that as trade protectionism. When that happens within the United States, state to state, it's still trade protectionism. The Constitution of the United States reserves the regulation of interstate commerce to the Congress and prohibits it to the states for that very reason, because they didn't want to set up trade wars between the states. Now we are seeing this emerge in the ag community, with regulations of gestation crates, stalls for veal calves, how you feed ducks and geese for liver, the egg piece, and it will be broilers next.

I am just suggesting that the language that we have written into the Farm Bill now, that prohibits the states from regulating the means of production of ag products as an important of piece of language in legislation, must go into law or we will see in the U.S. trade wars, by regulating the means of production, that are worse than the trade competition that you have testified to today."