Labor and Environmental Groups Urge U.S. Officials to Reject WTO Attack against the IRA
Washington, D.C. — A dozen labor, environmental and other civil society organizations submitted joint public comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) today urging the United States to continue implementing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as intended without making changes demanded by the Chinese government in a suit at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The groups argue such changes would erode the law’s benefits to U.S. workers and climate goals.
On Monday, the WTO formally moved forward with establishing a dispute panel to hear China’s complaint that tax incentives for electric vehicles, batteries and renewable energy production within the IRA are prohibited by WTO rules.
The U.S. groups say that the IRA “included historic investments to boost manufacturing in the clean energy economy” and that the law “has the potential to be a game changer for the industrial towns hit hardest by decades of offshoring.”
The joint submission to USTR as part of a public comment period that closes Thursday says that “incentives that will help create and support good clean energy jobs are being threatened by antiquated trade rules.” It urges the U.S. government “to not allow outdated corporate-friendly trade rules to stand in the way of swift and certain implementation of the IRA” and for the law to be implemented “without technical changes” demanded in the WTO suit.
The groups conclude that “Outdated trade rules at the WTO should not be used to undermine our laws or any other country’s laws that are intended to support a growing clean energy economy.”
The comments were signed by Citizens Trade Campaign (CTC), the International Association of Machinists (IAM), NETWORK, Public Citizen, Rethink Trade, Sierra Club, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team, Trade Justice Education Fund, U.S. Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, United Auto Workers (UAW), United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC) and United Steelworkers (USW).
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