American companies are “lining up this week to give the Trump administration an earful” about the effects its proposed tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports.
The Washington Post said in an analysis that the diversity of businesses converging on the White House to detail how painful the tariffs would be should send President Trump a message.
On Monday, just as the U.S. Trade Representative kicked off a week of hearings on the tariffs, the administration heard from interests as disparate as Best Buy, the sportfishing industry, toilet maker American Standard, and a group representing museum directors.
The retailers largely came with the same message, according to the newspaper: proposed tariffs will either hurt their bottom lines or force price hikes onto buyers.
Companies like New Balance have begun to fear what many in the marine industry have always faced — though they manufacture shoes domestically, many of the parts they source in China would be subject to new tariffs.
American Sportfishing Association president Glenn Hughes — who made the point that Americans already pay an excise tax that supports state fish and wildlife agencies when they buy boating and fishing equipment — was among those the newspaper quoted during testimony.
“Fewer fishing equipment purchases means less revenue into the trust fund, which ultimately means less funding for programs important to the Trump Administration’s priorities to improve public access to the outdoors,” Hughes said.
The U.S. Trade Representative has already received more than 1,600 written comments about the plan to impose additional tariffs; the majority warn that would raise prices for consumers and disrupt production, according to a separate article in The Washington Post.
