Trade Groups Argue Against Vietnam Section 301 Tariffs

Seventy-five trade groups, including the American Apparel and Footwear Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Foreign Trade Council and the Oudoor Industry Association, are telling U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that Vietnamese exports should not face tariffs over either currency manipulation or environmental abuses.

Their letter, sent July 14, says they're hearing that her agency "may soon issue a list of goods imported from Vietnam from which the Biden administration would propose to levy Section 301 tariffs pursuant to the Trump administration’s 'currency manipulation' and 'illegal timber' investigations." They argue that the Treasury Department found there was insufficient evidence that Vietnam manipulates its currency, and that the surge of imports over the last few years is largely a result of the Section 301 tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of Chinese imports. "This has led importers to look to Vietnam, perhaps more than any other country in Asia, as a sensible, trustworthy alternative to China. Imposing Section 301 tariffs on goods from Vietnam in either investigation would be a peculiar response to developments that are, in a sense, the hoped-for outcome of U.S. policy," they wrote. They also said that an investigation by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under the Lacey Act is a better tool to combat illegally harvested timber than a Section 301 investigation.