119-hr4780

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4780 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 4780

 To identify and take action against international trade practices of 
 high income countries that unfairly exploit innovation by deviating 
 from market-based policies and unfairly exploit United States 
 innovation, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 July 29, 2025

Mr. Arrington (for himself, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Fleischmann, Ms. Tenney, 
 and Mr. Murphy) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
 the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To identify and take action against international trade practices of 
 high income countries that unfairly exploit innovation by deviating 
 from market-based policies and unfairly exploit United States 
 innovation, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Use Sovereignty To reduce Rx Act'' 
or the ``USTRx Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) 

=== Findings ===
-Congress finds the following:

    (1) Pharmaceutical price controls in foreign markets 
 distort global trade flows and competition by depressing the 
 prices of innovative drugs and exploiting pharmaceutical 
 innovations researched and developed in the United States.

    (2) By setting prices at levels that are not market-based, 
 such price controls undervalue the discovery of new, innovative 
 treatments, diminish opportunities and incentives for global 
 innovation in new medicines, and threaten to restrict access to 
 new treatments and cures for United States patients and 
 consumers.

    (3) Recognizing these dynamics, it is critical that the 
 United States use all available trade tools to address such 
 free-riding to ensure that foreign government regulatory 
 reimbursement regimes are transparent, provide procedural 
 fairness, are non-discriminatory, and provide full market 
 access to United States products.

    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--

    (1) ensuring the security of innovative and affordable 
 healthcare is a top priority for Americans and for Congress;

    (2) foreign government policies that mandate artificially 
 low drug prices in foreign markets undermine this priority by 
 reducing global incentives to invest in the development of new 
 medicines;

    (3) such exploitative behavior unfairly shifts the cost of 
 developing new treatments to the United States and unduly 
 relies on America's patients and taxpayers to finance global 
 pharmaceutical innovation; and

    (4) safeguarding access to life-saving treatments for 
 American patients requires combating such behavior so that 
 foreign countries pay their fair share of the costs associated 
 with the development of new drugs.

SEC. 3. CHIEF PHARMACEUTICAL TRADE NEGOTIATOR.

    (a) Establishment.--

Section 141

    (b) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 
U.S.C. 2171

    (b) ), is amended as follows:

    (1) In paragraph

    (2) --
        (A) in the first sentence, by inserting ``one Chief 
 Pharmaceutical Trade Negotiator,'' after ``one Chief 
 Agricultural Negotiator,''; and
        (B) by inserting ``the Chief Pharmaceutical Trade 
 Negotiator,'' after ``the Chief Agricultural 
 Negotiator,'' each place it appears.

    (2) By adding at the end the following new paragraph:
 ``

    (7) The principal functions of the Chief Pharmaceutical 
 Trade Negotiator shall be to conduct trade negotiations, 
 enforce trade agreements relating to United States 
 pharmaceutical products, and take appropriate action to address 
 acts, policies, or practices of high-income countries that have 
 a significant adverse impact on the ability of United States 
 pharmaceutical manufacturers to enjoy full market access. The 
 Chief Pharmaceutical Trade Negotiator shall be a vigorous 
 advocate on behalf of United States manufacturers and consumers 
 of pharmaceutical products and shall perform such other 
 functions as the United States Trade Representative may direct. 
 In carrying out such duties, the Chief Pharmaceutical 
 Negotiator shall, as appropriate, consult or coordinate with 
 the Chief Intellectual Property Negotiator.''.

    (b) Annual Report.--

    (1) List of high-income countries.--The United States Trade 
 Representative shall compile and annually update a list of each 
 foreign country that is defined as ``high-income'' by the 
 official statistics of the International Bank for 
 Reconstruction and Development of the World Bank.

    (2) Report required.--With respect to each country included 
 on the most recent list required under paragraph

    (1) , the 
 United States Trade Representative, acting through the Chief 
 Pharmaceutical Trade Negotiator, (as established pursuant to 
 the amendments made by subsection

    (a) ) shall annually submit to 
 the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives 
 and the Committee on Finance of the Senate and concurrently 
 publish on a publicly available website of the United States 
 Trade Representative a report that--
        (A) describes in detail the results of a review of 
 the acts, policies, and practices of such country 
 relating to the trade in pharmaceutical products in the 
 previous fiscal year;
        (B) determines whether such acts, policies, or 
 practices--
            (i) are not developed and implemented in a 
 fair, nondiscriminatory, and transparent 
 manner;
            (ii) are not market-based or do not 
 appropriately recognize the value of innovative 
 medicines;
            (iii) deny reciprocal market access for 
 United States products;
            (iv) diminish incentives for innovation in 
 a manner that delays, prevents, or otherwise 
 adversely impacts the introduction of new 
 medicines in the United States;
            (v) violate or are inconsistent with the 
 provisions of, or otherwise deny benefits to 
 the United States under, any bilateral or 
 multilateral trade agreement with such country; 
 and
            (vi) are unjustifiable or impose a 
 significant burden or unreasonable or 
 discriminatory restriction on United States 
 commerce with such country; and
            (C) describes the current status of any responsive 
 actions taken by the United States with respect to 
 acts, policies, or practices for which the United 
 States Trade Representative has determined and included 
 in any prior report, pursuant to subparagraph
        (B) , that 
 the interests of the United States are harmed, 
 including responsive actions pursuant to title III of 
 the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2411 et seq.).
            (c) Response to Adverse Actions.--Not later than 30 days after the 
United States Trade Representative determines that an act, policy, or 
practice of a country included in the applicable list required under 
subsection

    (b)

    (1) meets any of the criteria described in subsection

    (b)

    (2)
        (B) , the United States Trade Representative shall submit to 
Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the 
Committee on Finance of the Senate a plan to respond to such adverse 
action, which may include initiating an investigation under chapter 1 
title III of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2411 et seq.), in 
accordance with 

section 302

    (b)

    (1) of such chapter.
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