In the last 20 years, China has kept a close eye on the U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). In that time they’ve used the law to leap ahead of the U.S. in chemical manufacturing, now accounting for half of the world’s total chemical manufacturing sales, according to witness testimony presented in today’s U.S. House Committee on Science, Space & Technology.
Charlotte Bertrand, Senior Director of Chemical Management and Regulatory Policy and Strategy for the American Chemistry Council (ACC) spoke to her 28-year experience in federal service working for both the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In her opening statement, Bertrand noted that during her time at the EPA, the agency’s interpretation of TSCA meant that, “EPA’s evaluation and regulatory approach often resulted in prohibitions with limited exemptions for national security or critical infrastructure uses,” adding that “rather than consistently applying a risk based, best available science framework required by statute, EPA has relied on methodologies that raise scientific questions and layer conservative assumptions in lieu of real world data, research and development, and manufacturing of new innovative chemistries in the U.S.”
The consequences of not reevaluating these scientific and policy underpinnings, Bertrand warned, “could limit innovation, affect the U.S. competitive advantage, impact American jobs, and give foreign competitors, especially China, an opportunity to capture an even larger share of the rapidly growing global market.”
Bertrand testified that as recently as 2009, the U.S. was the global leader in chemical manufacturing, but in just a few short years, “China’s output has surged from 11% to 50% of the world chemical sales, while the U.S. is now very distant second place.”
When asked about how China’s chemical manufacturing dominance negatively impacts our country’s ability to develop chemistries needed for defense and space missions, Bertrand noted that China has a keen understanding of TSCA and how it’s been implemented. Bertrand testified that China is so focused on TSCA that they’ve gone so far as to insert comments in TSCA dockets.
“It’s a concern that over the last 20 years that the U.S. has fallen to second, and that the China is now over 50% of the chemicals manufacturing sales. China is following TSCA rulemakings. When I was at NASA, we noted that they had comments in the TSCA dockets. It is a concern if we as a United States, don’t have access to chemistries that are critical not only for NASA but for other federal agencies, because our market is declining in something, or there’s prohibitions on a chemistry and it forces it forces the use or access to that chemistry to come from a foreign entity.”
Americans should be focused on this important issue because now that the U.S. has been eclipsed in chemical manufacturing, we find ourselves reliant on foreign entities, including adversaries like China, for chemistries that were once made domestically and are used as inputs in our country’s defense and aerospace systems.
As Congress looks to reform TSCA this year, this hearing highlights that reviewing chemicals in a timely manner with the best available science to ensure public safety, while also bolstering scientific innovation, national security, and domestic manufacturing is critical to making our country a stronger, safer, more prosperous nation.