AAM Says Section 301 Tariffs Should Remain

The Alliance for American Manufacturing told the administration that it's "absurd" to blame Section 301 tariffs for inflation, given they started years before inflation began to rise. "U.S. consumers would see little to no benefit from tariff roll backs and any erosion of tariffs will benefit China’s Communist Party and China’s manufacturing sector, which would make up the difference by increasing its prices," the group wrote. It said that all tariffs should remain. "AAM strongly supports allowing USTR to continue its fact-based exclusion process without congressional mandates or any other political interference that predetermines an outcome. While an accessible and transparent exclusion process is essential for trade enforcement actions, unwarranted tariff relief may very well signal the demise of a U.S. company that is seeking to establish a market foothold or one that has reinvented itself to fill gaps in our domestic supply chains," it wrote.

"We imported $1.2 trillion in goods in 2000. By last year, that total surged to $2.8 trillion, a 133 percent increase, while our GDP grew over the same period at a slower (115 percent) rate. Not only has this replacement led to the loss of five million good, middleclass jobs and devastated communities across our nation, it has left us increasingly dependent on imports, often from adversarial countries like China, for everything from consumer goods and advanced technology products to lifesaving personal protective equipment," the comments submission said. "The measure of success must be rebalancing our lopsided bilateral trade relationship, allowing our industrial base to recover lost ground, and protecting our economic and national security for future generations."