Level the playing field in trade

Sherrod Brown, senior U.S. senator from Ohio, long has distinguished himself as a champion of free and fair trade, recognizing the strong job-creation power of an expanding playing field on which U.S. businesses can conduct robust international commerce.

At the same time, Brown has long distinguished himself as a sharp-toothed watchdog over unfair trade practices that have ripped jobs out of the American economy largely because some players on that field have used unseemly tactics to gain one-sided advantages.

Recognizing such inequities, the Democrat senator this spring introduced the Leveling the Playing Field Act in Congress. As its title suggests, its provisions would take additional taut steps to ensure America and its trading partners play by the same rules.

UNFAIR TRADE = LOST JOBS

Clearly, that has not been the case. “When we make trade deals with countries that don’t follow the same labor, health and environmental laws that we do, we see rising imports and shuttered factories,” Brown said. Indeed the decline of manufacturing in the Mahoning Valley serves as validation for the senator’s premise.

Among its many potentially beneficial provisions, the Leveling the Field Act would allow businesses and workers in the United States to petition the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission when foreign producers sell goods in this country below market price or receive illegal subsidies.

It would work to bulldoze unfair subsidies that have lengthened unemployment lines and deepened the trade deficit in the U.S. As such, it merits speedy consideration and prompt passage.