Sen. Warren Seeks Probe on Tariff Exemptions, Cites Element’s Favoritism With OMB Chief 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wants the Commerce Department to open a probe into the Trump administration’s practices of granting exemptions to the Trade Act Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, she wrote Inspector General Peggy Gustafson Wednesday. Warren’s staff’s investigation and media reports suggest the exemption process is “arbitrary and opaque, replete with mistakes, and subject to political favoritism,” she said. “It is therefore imperative that your office investigate.” Warren cited a report that Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney was trying to use his influence to win a tariffs exemption for Element Electronics, whose president, Mike O'Shaughnessy, a former Polaroid and Frigidaire executive, contributed $5,400 to Mulvaney's 2016 congressional re-election campaign in South Carolina, where Element runs what it bills as the only LCD TV assembly plant in the U.S. Element is fighting proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs -- not Section 232 duties -- on the LCD panels and motherboards its Winnsboro, South Carolina, assembly plant sources from China. Element will be forced to close the plant and source finished TVs from China if the proposed tariffs go through, David Baer, its general counsel, testified at public hearings Aug. 21 (see 1808270004). Baer didn’t comment Friday.