Date: 1984-04-10
Speaker: ST GERMAIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

the chairman of our subcommittee. Mr. IAFALCE. and the ranking minority members. Mr. WYLIE and Mr. SHUMWAY. for their work in resolving the differences between the two bodies. I would offer a special thanks for their special work concerning the offset provision which I have been so interested in the past 3 years. The chairman. Mr. ST GERMAIN. has done an excellent job in describing the provisions of the conference report. I wish to elaborate on the offset report provision which requires the President to report to Congress on the types. terms. and magnitude of offset agreements. This legislation requires the President to report on the impact of offsets on defense preparedness. industrial competitiveness. employment. and trade of the United States and to include a discussion of international negotiations on offsets. In addition. each report shall contain a summary of relevant memorandums of understanding which provide the official framework for offset agreements. Offsets are demands made by foreign countries that condition the sale of Americanmade military products upon our agreement to produce. 11cense. or transfer productive capacity to the purchasing country. The committee is concerned that the net effect of these agreements may be export not only U.S.-made goods. but also U.S. Jobs -dnd technology to foreign countries. In the absence of a comprehensive analysis required by section 6 the longterm economic and industrial implications of these agreements are unclear. The legislation before us today will provide the Congress and the administration with the needed information to evaluate the impact of offset agreements. Since many offset agreements contain information of a proprietary nature It is the intent of the conferees that the confidentiality of this information be maintained in a manner that is consistent with the primary. overriding objective of this provision which is to provide the Congress with information on the nature of these offset agreements. The Subcommittee on Economic Stabilization of the House Banking Committee has been examining the offset question for over 3 years. However. a salient difficulty is the lack of executive branch consensus on the definition of the problem. Yet there are at least half a dozen agencies examining the problem and ironically none of them agree. Underlying this confusion and disagreement is the lack of a data base. The language in this billby providing for reports to the Congressis intended to provide a data base on offsets both for use within the executive branch as well as to assist the Congress in its examination of the problem. The report language importantly states that the Office of Management and Budget should be the coordinating agency for the mandated reports. However. I would state here that it is necessary that OMB should place primary reliance on the expertise already present in the Departments of Treasury and Commerce. To sum up. the offset language in the bill is a prudent first necessary step in the examination of a topic of growing concern. The bill as a whole is a good bill. a noncontroversial ending of controversy on an important subject. Mr. Speaker. the conference committee maintains the position of the House while recognizing several concerns of the other body. It is a good compromise and I urge my colleagues to support the adoption of the conference committee report.