Pro-domestic manufacturing group talks trade with Lighthizer, Ross

Executives from the Coalition for a Prosperous America, which bills itself as a pro-domestic manufacturing organization, are lauding the administration’s early trade actions after meeting last week with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to discuss trade opportunities in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors.

May 31st, 2017 [Inside Trade

“Already we are seeing far more aggressive investigation and enforcement directed at unfair foreign trade practices in a break from past administrations’ reluctant enforcement efforts,” Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA, said in a May 30 statement.

The meetings involved “deep discussions” about currency manipulation and misalignment – prominent themes during the Commerce Department’s May 18 public hearing on a review of bilateral trade deficits – and problems the group claims the U.S. faces from “strategic trade nationalism,” the statement said. Stumo called China, Japan and Germany the primary culprits.

In the same statement, Dan DiMicco, newly appointed chairman of CPA and trade adviser to President Trump’s transition team, touted the Commerce Department’s and USTR’s leadership thus far, which he said has been focused on reducing the U.S. trade deficit and enforcing trade laws. The group lauded Commerce’s work in preparing an omnibus report on significant trade deficits for President Trump and said Lighthizer – who was confirmed as USTR on May 11 – “is now putting his stamp on the agency he leads.”

“With their leadership, we have a chance to fix past mistakes and craft a strategy to grow American manufacturing and agriculture rather than accept decline,” DiMicco said.

Read more at Inside Trade

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