Senator Claire McCaskill says after a month of traveling to Missouri businesses she’ll introduce legislation to better enforce U.S. trade laws.
The Democrat says too many foreign companies are engaging in unfair trading practices, such as mislabeling products to avoid paying duties.
McCaskill says her bill will require all importers to have a physical address to ensure easier tracking and new shippers will be required to pay cash for duties instead of posting bonds that sometimes go unpaid.
Missouri’s senior senator says enforcing trade laws will allow U.S. companies to better compete and create jobs.
“I mean, imagine what the state of Missouri is dangling out there to get manufacturers to locate to Missouri," McCaskill said. "Well, if we spent a fraction of what we’re spending competing with one another in this country to try to get facilities on enforcing the rules for all our manufacturers, I think we’d create a lot more jobs.”
McCaskill says she knows of two plants that closed in Missouri because they were competing with importers that evaded duties.
The senator says she’s also co-sponsoring a bill that would give U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a stricter timetable to pursue such cases.
