Last June, the USICA passed easily in the Senate by a vote of 68-32. USICA’s trade section would reinstate 2,200 exemptions for China that the Trump administration stripped away. Specifically, the USICA takes a sledgehammer to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to respond to breaches by foreign countries of U.S. trade agreements or other foreign trade practices deemed improper.

Trump used Section 301 to place tariffs on a large number of Chinese imports to the tune of an additional 25 percent in response to intellectual property theft. Despite the political establishment and corporate media’s pearl clutching, the tariffs on Chinese imports were popular, which is likely why the Biden administration has done little to undo them, though it has handed out just over 350 tariff exemptions for certain Chinese goods.

Section 301 is the chief executive’s main tool in the kit to decouple the American economy from China, but the USICA would render it virtually inoperable, while giving large handouts to Chinese importers. Under the USICA, Chinese firms would be allowed to claim “lost profitability” via tariffs on goods to get an exemption from Section 301 tariffs. It would also refund Section 301 tariffs paid in 2021 if a Chinese good lost its exemption at the end of 2020. If this refund provision remains in the final bill, the U.S. Treasury will be forced to send billions of dollars to Chinese firms within 90 days of the bill becoming law.