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WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today participated in a Senate Finance Committee Executive Session for consideration of the United States-Taiwan Expedited Double-Tax Relief Act. Lankford voiced his support for the bill and for the Committee’s work to advance the US-Taiwan relationship.
Lankford also encouraged the Committee members to support his Deterring Escalation Through Economic Retaliation (DETER) Act, which he introduced this week to deter conflict in the Taiwan Strait by establishing a policy to revoke Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with the People’s Republic of China if Beijing invades Taiwan. The bill also requires the Commerce Department and other agencies to conduct an assessment of current US supply chain vulnerabilities that would be affected by PNTR suspension, along with proposals to mitigate those risks and reduce reliance on China in the meantime.
Last week, Lankford led the introduction of the Belt & Road Oversight Act to strengthen America’s ability to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s economic coercion and predatory lending tactics. Lankford is working to address ongoing dependence on China for everything from farmland purchases to pharmaceuticals to critical minerals. Lankford has championed the SOIL Act, which targets international land purchases from countries that threaten national security. Lankford led the bipartisan Quad Critical Minerals Partnership Act and recently introduced new legislation to reduce the US’ reliance on China for critical minerals. Lankford continues to call out the Biden Administration’s soft approach to China and encourages the Administration to directly address with China their human rights and religious freedom abuses.
Excerpt
We took away the permanent trade relations, the Most-Favored-Nation status from Russia when they invaded Ukraine and began slaughtering their neighbors. This Committee acted on that and spoke in a very clear way to Russia that we’re not going to do economic activity with you. I encourage us to be able to take that step in the days ahead with the DETER Act that I’m filing to be able to make it clear to China in advance, rather than waiting until an invasion occurs, but to let them know in advance that if they invade Taiwan and take military action on Taiwan that we will have the exact same response we did for Russia because it is much better to try to deter a war from ever starting than to try to end it once it actually begins.
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