WASHINGTON — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today urged U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to not expand exclusions to Chinese imports subject to Section 301 tariffs. Currently, the Biden administration is reviewing 549 products currently subject to 301 tariffs imposed on Chinese imports. CPA strongly supports the current 301 tariffs on Chinese imports and believes that the current review should result in zero new exclusions. Read the full text of CPA’s letter here.
“We write to urge the Biden Administration not to expand the exclusion process beyond the current review of 549 products subject to our China tariffs imposed pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (“301 tariffs”),” the letter states. “We do not believe any rationale exists in 2021 – more than four years after the initiation of the Section 301 investigation – for revisiting any Section 301 exclusions. We hope that the current review of the 549 products results in none being restored. We are concerned, however, that the Biden Administration has left open the possibility for a more general exclusion round.”
In a recent speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Ambassador Tai said that the administration “will keep open the potential for additional exclusion processes.” CPA Trade Counsel Charles Benoit wrote that the Biden administration’s announcement that it would restart the exclusion process for Chinese imports subject to 301 tariffs undermines President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda and rewards the Chinese Communist Party.
“When President Biden further outlined his vision for the Build Back Better agenda in front of Congress in April, CPA praised the goals as good economic sense,” the letter continues. “However, we believe that a renewed general 301 tariff exclusion process runs counter to that vision. Every time an exclusion is granted, it is a missed opportunity for American workers and producers. Our 301 tariffs are necessary to ensure they have a fighting chance.”
Earlier this month, CPA wrote about Ambassador Tai’s comments that the Section 301 tariffs on China are “effective policies” to defend “the interests of the American economy, the American worker, and American businesses and our farmers, too.”
“Despite ongoing bad behavior by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), we are concerned that the Administration seems intent on rewarding China,” the letter concludes. “The CCP shows no inclination of changing its ways. Our 301 tariffs were imposed to counter the unfair trade advantages the CCP accrued thanks to their decades-long brazen Intellectual Property (IP) theft and blatant disregard for American IP rights… Expanding opportunities for 301 exclusions penalizes American companies, and the workers that they employ, that made the investments and did the hard work of shifting supply chains out of China.”
In April, CPA wrote a letter to Senators in response to their letter requesting that Ambassador Tai to renew expired and expiring China Section 301 tariff exclusions. CPA urged the Senators to reconsider their support for renewing 301 exclusions, an action that would be contrary to America’s national and economic security interests.
