WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today applauded U.S. Representatives Jared Golden (D-ME-2) and Greg Steube (R-FL-17) for the introduction of their bill, the ‘Secure Trade Act.’ This legislation codifies the President’s ten-percent universal tariff, and also repeals China’s “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) status.
Last summer, CPA economists predicted the universal tariff would generate $263 billion in new revenue to offset domestic tax cuts and raise real income, and that is precisely what has happened. Similarly, CPA has long advocated the benefits of repealing China’s MFN status.
“The President campaigned heavily on both of these policies and received strong support at the ballot box last November,” said Jon Toomey, President of CPA. “This codification by Congress reinforces their popularity as well as defends them against any subsequent challenges at the courthouse. We are grateful to Reps. Golden and Steube, for their leadership and bipartisan policy-making efforts to codify these pro-America policies into law.”
Revenue and protection are both excellent uses for tariffs, and have been since the country’s founding. This can be done even on a singular product by way of Tariff-Rate Quotas (TRQ), as the Trump Administration demonstrated in the recent U.S.-UK trade framework. TRQ’s are tariffs that kick in after a specified volume has been imported without the tariff, often at near duty-free rates.
The U.S. Department of Justice warned on August 11 that if the Presidential order supporting the Universal Tariff were struck down, it would bring about “economic ruin.” The Department continued: “If the United States were forced to pay back the trillions of dollars committed to us, America could go from strength to failure the moment such an incorrect decision took effect.”
While CPA believes that the President is acting lawfully and with clearly delegated authority, any chance of a finding by the courts to the contrary would bring about an economic calamity for the U.S., and thus Congress should move swiftly to pass the bipartisan ‘Secure Trade Act.’
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