I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2039 
To amend title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 to clarify that countervailing 
duties may be imposed to address subsidies relating to a fundamentally 
undervalued currency of any foreign country. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 6, 2017 
Mr. LEVIN (for himself, Mr. PASCRELL, and Mr. RYAN of Ohio) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To amend title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 to clarify 
that countervailing duties may be imposed to address 
subsidies relating to a fundamentally undervalued cur-
rency of any foreign country. 
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 ‘‘Currency Reform for 
Fair Trade Act’’. 
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SEC. 
2. 
CLARIFICATION 
REGARDING 
DEFINITION 
OF 
COUNTERVAILABLE SUBSIDY. 
(a) BENEFIT CONFERRED.—Section 771(5)(E) of 
the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677(5)(E)) is amend-
ed— 
(1) in clause (iii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 
(2) in clause (iv), by striking the period at the 
end and inserting ‘‘, and’’; and 
(3) by inserting after clause (iv) the following 
new clause: 
‘‘(v) in the case in which the currency 
of a country in which the subject merchan-
dise is produced is exchanged for foreign 
currency obtained from export trans-
actions, and the currency of such country 
is a fundamentally undervalued currency, 
as defined in paragraph (37), the dif-
ference between the amount of the cur-
rency of such country provided and the 
amount of the currency of such country 
that would have been provided if the real 
effective exchange rate of the currency of 
such country were not undervalued, as de-
termined pursuant to paragraph (38).’’. 
(b) EXPORT SUBSIDY.—Section 771(5A)(B) of the 
Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677(5A)(B)) is amended 
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by adding at the end the following new sentence: ‘‘In the 
case of a subsidy relating to a fundamentally undervalued 
currency, the fact that the subsidy may also be provided 
in circumstances not involving export shall not, for that 
reason alone, mean that the subsidy cannot be considered 
contingent upon export performance.’’. 
(c) DEFINITION
OF
FUNDAMENTALLY
UNDER-
VALUED CURRENCY.—Section 771 of the Tariff Act of 
1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677) is amended by adding at the end 
the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(37) FUNDAMENTALLY
UNDERVALUED
CUR-
RENCY.—The administering authority shall deter-
mine that the currency of a country in which the 
subject merchandise is produced is a ‘fundamentally 
undervalued currency’ if— 
‘‘(A) the government of the country (in-
cluding any public entity within the territory of 
the country) engages in protracted, large-scale 
intervention in one or more foreign exchange 
markets during part or all of the 18-month pe-
riod that represents the most recent 18 months 
for which the information required under para-
graph (38) is reasonably available, but that 
does not include any period of time later than 
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the final month in the period of investigation or 
the period of review, as applicable; 
‘‘(B) the real effective exchange rate of the 
currency is undervalued by at least 5 percent, 
on average and as calculated under paragraph 
(38), relative to the equilibrium real effective 
exchange rate for the country’s currency during 
the 18-month period; 
‘‘(C) during the 18-month period, the 
country has experienced significant and per-
sistent global current account surpluses; and 
‘‘(D) during the 18-month period, the for-
eign asset reserves held by the government of 
the country exceed— 
‘‘(i) the amount necessary to repay all 
debt obligations of the government falling 
due within the coming 12 months; 
‘‘(ii) 20 percent of the country’s 
money supply, using standard measures of 
M2; and 
‘‘(iii) the value of the country’s im-
ports during the previous 4 months.’’. 
(d) DEFINITION OF REAL EFFECTIVE EXCHANGE 
RATE UNDERVALUATION.—Section 771 of the Tariff Act 
of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677), as amended by subsection (c) 
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of this section, is further amended by adding at the end 
the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(38) REAL
EFFECTIVE
EXCHANGE
RATE 
UNDERVALUATION.—The calculation of real effective 
exchange rate undervaluation, for purposes of para-
graph (5)(E)(v) and paragraph (37), shall— 
‘‘(A)(i) rely upon, and where appropriate 
be the simple average of, the results yielded 
from application of the approaches described in 
the guidelines of the International Monetary 
Fund’s Consultative Group on Exchange Rate 
Issues; or 
‘‘(ii) if the guidelines of the International 
Monetary Fund’s Consultative Group on Ex-
change Rate Issues are not available, be based 
on generally accepted economic and econometric 
techniques and methodologies to measure the 
level of undervaluation; 
‘‘(B) rely upon data that are publicly avail-
able, reliable, and compiled and maintained by 
the International Monetary Fund or, if the 
International Monetary Fund cannot provide 
the data, by other international organizations or 
by national governments; and 
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‘‘(C) use inflation-adjusted, trade-weighted 
exchange rates.’’. 
SEC. 3. REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ACT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 9 months after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 
of the United States shall submit to Congress a report 
on the implementation of the amendments made by this 
Act. 
(b) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED.—The report re-
quired by subsection (a) shall include a description of the 
extent to which United States industries that have been 
materially injured by reason of imports of subject mer-
chandise produced in foreign countries with fundamentally 
undervalued currencies have received relief under title VII 
of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1671 et seq.), as 
amended by this Act. 
SEC. 4. APPLICATION TO GOODS FROM CANADA AND MEX-
ICO. 
Pursuant to article 1902 of the North American Free 
Trade Agreement and section 408 of the North American 
Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act of 1993 (19 
U.S.C. 3438), the amendments made by section 2 of this 
Act shall apply to goods from Canada and Mexico. 
Æ 
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