I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 694 
To suspend normal trade relations with the People’s Republic of China and 
to increase the rates of duty applicable with respect to articles imported 
from the People’s Republic of China, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 23, 2025 
Mr. MOOLENAAR (for himself and Mr. SUOZZI) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addi-
tion to the Committees on Agriculture, Armed Services, Transportation 
and Infrastructure, and Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To suspend normal trade relations with the People’s Republic 
of China and to increase the rates of duty applicable 
with respect to articles imported from the People’s Re-
public of China, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Restoring Trade Fair-
ness Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-
ings: 
(1) The United States grants normal trade re-
lations status to every country in the world except 
for Belarus, Cuba, North Korea, and the Russian 
Federation. 
(2) Merchandise originating from a country 
that is a beneficiary of normal trade relations status 
is subject to duties at the rates set forth in column 
1 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United 
States (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘HTS’’). 
(3) Merchandise originating from a country 
that is not a beneficiary of normal trade relations 
status is subject to duties at the rates set forth in 
column 2 of the HTS. 
(4) The United States Schedule of Concessions 
on goods to the World Trade Organization lists rates 
of duty the United States is expected to extend to 
all other members of the World Trade Organization. 
(5) As of the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the rates of duty under the United States Schedule 
of Concessions on goods, on a simple average basis, 
are the lowest among all members of the World 
Trade Organization, at 3.4 percent. The duty con-
cessions in the United States Schedule of Conces-
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sions align with the duties set forth in column 1 of 
the HTS. 
(6) The People’s Republic of China was granted 
normal trade relations status in February 1980, 
pursuant to title IV of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 
U.S.C. 2431 et seq.), making merchandise from the 
People’s Republic of China eligible for the duties set 
forth in column 1 of the HTS. 
(7) From 1980 until 2001, the People’s Repub-
lic of China’s normal trade relations status was sub-
ject to compliance with freedom-of-emigration re-
quirements under section 402 of the Trade Act of 
1974 (19 U.S.C. 2432) (commonly referred to as the 
‘‘Jackson-Vanik amendment’’). 
(8) In 2001, Public Law 106–286 (114 Stat. 
880) was passed to make permanent the People’s 
Republic of China’s normal trade relations status. 
(9) Entries under section 321 of the Tariff Act 
of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1321) became an avenue of com-
merce by way of regulation, when in 1994 the De-
partment of the Treasury and the Customs Service 
issued an interim rule expanding the class of persons 
deemed eligible to make informal entries under that 
section, and exempted shipments by those persons 
from the requirement to file an entry summary. In 
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both litigation challenging the interim rule and com-
ments on the final rule published the following year, 
customs brokers warned that the Customs Service 
was abrogating its responsibility to enforce laws, but 
their warnings were not heeded. 
(10) In 2018, following an investigation under 
title III of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2411 
et seq.) into the theft of intellectual property by the 
People’s Republic of China, additional duties affect-
ing approximately one-third of exports from the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China to the United States were 
imposed. On January 15, 2020, the United States 
and the People’s Republic of China signed the Eco-
nomic and Trade Agreement Between the Govern-
ment of the United States of America and the Gov-
ernment of the People’s Republic Of China, which 
required structural reforms and other changes to the 
economic and trade regime of the People’s Republic 
of China. The People’s Republic of China, however, 
did not comply with the agreement. 
(11) In December 2022, the United States- 
China Economic and Security Review Commission’s 
2022 Annual Report asserted as follows: ‘‘After 
many years of attempting to engage China and per-
suade it to abandon its distortive trade practices, it 
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is clear this approach has not been successful. The 
United States has an opportunity to develop a new 
strategy based on building resilience against China’s 
state capitalism and blunting its harmful effects 
rather than seeking to change it. With the WTO un-
able to introduce meaningful new rules and proce-
dures, the United States can pursue approaches that 
advance its own national interests as well as cooper-
ate with like-minded partners.’’ 
(12) The Commission’s 2022 Annual Report 
recommended that the Administration prepare a re-
port to ‘‘assess China’s compliance with the terms 
and conditions of the 1999 Agreement on Market 
Access between the People’s Republic of China and 
the United States of America’’. The Commission rec-
ommended that ‘‘[i]f the report concludes that China 
has failed to comply with the provisions agreed to 
for its accession to the WTO, Congress should con-
sider legislation to immediately suspend China’s Per-
manent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) treat-
ment’’. 
(13) In February 2023, the Office of the 
United States Trade Representative released a re-
port entitled ‘‘2022 Report to Congress on China’s 
WTO Compliance’’. In releasing that report, United 
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(A) were intended for export to the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China; 
(B) were not exported to the People’s Re-
public of China as a result of actions by the 
People’s Republic of China described in para-
graph (1); and 
(C) the producer was unable to sell to 
other purchasers at a fair price after a good 
faith attempt at the same price the producer 
expected for the export to the People’s Republic 
of China. 
(5) REMAINDER
OF
AMOUNTS
PROVIDED
TO 
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.—If, at the end of a fis-
cal year and after the transfer of any amounts under 
paragraphs (2)(B), (3), and (4), amounts remain in 
the trust fund established under subsection (a), the 
Secretary of the Treasury shall transfer such re-
maining amounts to the Department of Defense to 
acquire the following: 
(A) Harpoons or other anti-ship cruise 
missiles. 
(B) Loitering munitions. 
(C) Shallow water naval mines. 
(D) Any ground launched missile with an 
anti-ship seeker on it. 
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