Suspend Tariffs and Seek Trade Talks With Chinese, 150 Groups Urge USTR

Continuing the “tit-for-tat tariff escalation” with China by enacting a third tranche of proposed Section 301 duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports “only serves to expand the harm to more U.S. economic interests, including farmers, families, businesses, and workers,” wrote the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, the National Retail Federation and 148 other trade groups in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer at the Sept. 6 deadline for comments in docket USTR-2018-0026. “Unilaterally imposing tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in goods invites retaliation,” said the groups, which also included the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones, the American Association of Exporters and Importers, the Information Technology Industry Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association. Implementing the first two rounds of tariffs July 6 and Aug. 23 “has not resulted in meaningful negotiations or concessions” from the Chinese, they said.

The official notice on the proposed tariffs "implicitly acknowledges that the expansive increase in products and trade that would be impacted by a 10% or 25% tariff no longer is connected back to the underlying Chinese government policies or the projected $50 billion harm that underpin the Section 301 investigation and USTR’s report on Chinese policies," the groups said. "This new list is punitive by design, but it will punish U.S. manufacturers and consumers hardest."

With the holiday selling season “fast approaching,” orders to meet holiday demand “are in most sectors already made,” they said. They fear that the third tranche of tariffs “will hit” just as those products enter U.S. ports in the fall, “denying U.S. importers and consumers any time to adjust those orders for this season,” they said. “The situation will be ripe for significant supply chain disruption during the most critical time for retailers and their suppliers.” The U.S. and China should “suspend further tariff actions and begin a comprehensive negotiation to address longstanding trade and investment issues,” the groups said.

Though the Trump administration “continues to argue that it will escalate tariff actions against China until China alters its behavior, we have seen no indication of China changing course,” they said. “We request that every effort be undertaken now to initiate meaningful negotiations expeditiously. We recommend no further tariff actions be taken until those negotiations have a chance to produce significant and verifiable results, and the Administration can fully assess the impact of tariffs thus far on American businesses, farmers, manufacturers, jobs, and consumers.” Lighthizer’s office didn’t comment.