BAY CITY, Mich. (WJRT) – Earlier in February the House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Act of 2022 in efforts to ease an ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips.
Now Rep. Dan Kildee (D- Flint Township) says more legislation needs to be pushed to help fix other supply chains issues, including enacting provisions to help prevent shippers form price gouging cause price increases for Michigan farmers.
“Bottom line is the supply chain issues have been a problem for a long time, they’ve been chipping away literally at our ability to compete,” Kildee said. “This is a chance for us to not just deal with the more immediate needs, but to fix global trade in a way that our growers, our manufacturers don’t have to compete with one arm tied behind their back.”
However, Kildee describes it as a long and uphill battle that starts with creating an even playing field.
“We need to make sure rules allow our growers and our manufacturers to have fair access to markets with our trading partners,” Kildee said.
To do that he says congress needs to fix policies and get shipping containers unloaded and back on American soil.
“We have not modernized the policy from top to bottom,” Kildee said. “What is even more frustrating in some cases is that a lot of those containers are leaving empty because trading partners are using trade policy to benefit them at our expense.”
