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108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. CON. RES. 90

  Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding negotiating, in the 
   United States-Thailand Free Trade Agreement, access to the United 
                      States automobile industry.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 23, 2004

   Mr. Levin (for himself and Mr. Voinovich) submitted the following 
 concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding negotiating, in the 
   United States-Thailand Free Trade Agreement, access to the United 
                      States automobile industry.

Whereas the United States Trade Representative recently announced an intention 
        to negotiate a free trade agreement (FTA) with Thailand;
Whereas properly structured FTAs may have important benefits for the United 
        States, and a bilateral free trade agreement program pursued under a 
        coherent policy and strategy may play an important role in United States 
        trade policy;
Whereas the global automobile market is subject to inherently multilateral 
        problems that need to be addressed on a multilateral basis, including 
        numerous, widespread, and complex nontariff barriers maintained by major 
        producing countries;
Whereas providing Thailand privileged access to critical segments of the United 
        States automobile market would significantly erode United States 
        leverage to negotiate reductions to global automobile market distortions 
        in multilateral negotiations, because producers from third countries 
        would be able to benefit from the privileged access of Thailand under 
        the FTA;
Whereas Thailand is the second largest source of pick-up truck production in the 
        world, with many major automobile manufacturers from outside of Thailand 
        producing pick-up trucks there;
Whereas Thailand's Board of Investment has actively been recruiting automobile 
        producers from outside of Thailand, including Japan, South Korea, and 
        India, to produce automobiles in Thailand, and some of these producers 
        have cited Thailand's privileged access to foreign markets through FTAs 
        as a rationale for setting up production in Thailand;
Whereas many of these producers from outside of Thailand have moved their pick-
        up truck production out of their home countries and into Thailand in 
        order to make Thailand their global pick-up truck production and export 
        bases;
Whereas as a result of this activity by automobile producers from outside of 
        Thailand, pick-up truck production in Thailand will soon approach 
        1,000,000 units annually, and could grow even larger;
Whereas given these facts, if Thailand were given privileged access to critical 
        segments of the United States automobile market in an FTA, it could be 
        used by third-country automobile producers as a backdoor into the United 
        States market; however, Japan, South Korea, India, and other major 
        producing countries would not be required to reduce their tariff and 
        nontariff barriers to United States automobile producers, and in fact 
        the tariff and nontariff barriers maintained by those countries would 
        continue to distort global markets and restrict the access of United 
        States exports to markets in those countries;
Whereas given that these third-country producers would already have privileged 
        access to the United States market through the United States-Thailand 
        FTA, their home countries would have less incentive to address the 
        inherently multilateral problems in the global automobile market through 
        negotiations on a multilateral basis; and
Whereas the United States automobile industry is a major driver of the United 
        States economy--accounting annually for between 3 and 4 percent of the 
        gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States, leading all United 
        States industries in annual research and development spending, directly 
        employing over 500,000 highly skilled and efficient workers in jobs that 
        pay on average 60 percent higher than the average United States job, and 
        supporting the jobs of over 7,000,000 other workers--and it has played a 
        critical role in efforts to revive the United States economy: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), 
That it is the sense of the Congress that negotiations on access to 
critical segments of the United States automobile market should not 
take place on a piecemeal basis, but only--
            (1) as part of negotiations that include all major 
        automobile producing nations; and
            (2) as part of comprehensive negotiations that address both 
        tariff and nontariff barriers specific to the automobile 
        industry, with progress on eliminating tariff barriers 
        explicitly linked to concrete progress on eliminating nontariff 
        barriers.
                                 <all>

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