Chamber of Commerce Complains of Both WH and Congressional Inaction on Trade

U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark criticized the Biden administration for not only choosing to avoid tariff liberalizing trade negotiations, but also for walking away from long-time positions on digital trade provisions. Clark, who was speaking at a press conference after the Chamber's annual State of American Business event, declined to say whether a second Donald Trump administration or another term of Joe Biden would be worse on trade.

"We’ve seen the retrenchment for the last decade," she said, and people whose businesses rely on international trade need to be more vocal about how many U.S. jobs depend on trade, and "how a lot of the conventional wisdom on trade is just plain wrong."

When asked by International Trade Today about congressional inaction -- the three-year lapse for the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program renewal, and the prospects for the African Growth and Opportunity Act also lapsing -- Clark said she'd just heard from Tanzania's ambassador to the U.S. on AGOA concerns.

"What is frustrating to American business is when government doesn’t do their jobs," she said, asking members of Congress to "stop sniping at each other" and pass laws.

Neil Bradley, head of strategic advocacy at the Chamber said, "It’s a real problem that it's been lapsed for this long," and said the lack of action is frustrating. He said he couldn't predict whether Congress can renew GSP this year, saying the political environment is "weird."

He said GSP is not the only example of a policy "no one really fundamentally objects to, and yet somehow nobody can figure out how to get together and extend it." He included in that group AGOA and restoring three more generous tax provisions that had been part of the Trump tax credits but that sunset to make the cost of the overall package fit the debt timeline. "You can't find any legislator who says they’re opposed to those, and yet, we can’t quite seem to get them across the finish line."

He said the Chamber is trying to tell members about businesses affected by the lack of tariff benefits. He said one member company moved its supply chains to a GSP-eligible country after the Section 301 tariffs on China, but when GSP expired, paying the tariffs and the cost of production in the new country was higher than staying in China. He said that company "now is forced to relocate again in order to be competitive."