Some Ask for More Tariffs at Section 301 Hearing

While most of the witnesses on the first day of Section 301 tariffs hearings on Aug. 20 asked that items be taken off the tariff list, several companies and a trade group asked that more products be taxed. Mike Branson, executive vice president of Rheem Manufacturing's air conditioning division, said he was pleased that several subheadings in heading 8415 were on the latest list of targets. But he said 8415.94.40 and 8414.90.80 need to be added, "otherwise Chinese exporters of finished good air conditioners will be able to avoid the tariffs."

Central air conditioners have an outdoor unit, he explained, and when the system is shipped together, that's classified as 8415.10.90. But if they're shipped separately, they fall under 8415.90.80. While there are some high antidumping duties on certain copper tubes from China that fall under that code, the most-favored-nation tariff is 1.4 percent on that code. "We have sufficient capacity to react to an increase in domestic demand," Branson said, with 1,700 production workers in four states. "There is not going to be a problem of short supply in the market."

Pactiv CEO John McGrath said his company -- the largest manufacturer of food packaging -- has spent millions of dollars defending the design of just one product against Chinese infringement, with nine lawsuits. Pactiv, which has 8,500 employees in 15 states, has closed 10 manufacturing plants in the U.S. in the last seven years because of import competition. He asked that the committee add disposable tableware, cups and lids in subheading 3924 to the list. He said his company will be harmed if they're not added, and he lauded the proposal to increase tariffs on this list from 10 percent to 25 percent. "The unfairly cheap prices of Chinese imports will only be offset by a tariff of 25 percent or higher," he said.

Although many witnesses said the domestic textile industry was decimated decades ago (see 1808200026), Sara Beatty, senior vice president of the National Council of Textile Organizations, called for more textile tariffs, in her testimony. She said that while there are some items on the list that should be removed because there is no domestic supply -- acrylic rayon staple fibers and dyes, for example -- putting finished apparel on the list would help Caribbean and Latin American producers that use U.S. inputs.