As China prepares to send officials to the U.S. to restart talks on ending an escalating trade war, American companies and trade groups are returning to a Washington hearing room, most to argue against more tariffs from Donald Trump.
Almost 360 individuals are scheduled to testify over six days of hearings starting Monday on the latest round of proposed actions against Chinese imports, which would place tariffs of as much as 25 percent on $200 billion in goods, according to the Office of U.S. Trade Representative.
At the same time, China plans to send Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen to the U.S. this week to meet with David Malpass, undersecretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department, for the first major trade negotiations in more than two months.
It’s the third round of hearings on tariffs proposed by the administration. While there’s broad agreement that action is needed to address allegations of Chinese theft of intellectual property and other unfair trade practices, most companies and trade groups have been telling the administration that tariffs aren’t the answer.
Third Trip
Some officials are making their third trip to the nation’s capital to ask that their products be spared from duties, but with Trump threatening to hit virtually all Chinese imports, they’re not overly optimistic about goods being removed from the list.
“It doesn’t give me a whole lot of confidence going into the third round,” said Ed Brzytwa, director of international trade for the American Chemistry Council, which has tried unsuccessfully on behalf of its member companies to have certain products removed. “We have to make our best effort and explain why including these products on the list is not a great idea.”
Almost 200 individuals testified during the previous two rounds of hearings on duties covering $34 billion of goods imposed on July 6 and another $16 billion in products due to take effect Aug. 23. While some companies want tariffs added to products from competitors, most have asked to have imports spared because comparable items are not made in the U.S. or the higher costs and promised retaliation by China would cause economic harm.
Tariff Damage
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in its written comments ahead of this week’s hearings that tariffs won’t effectively address concerns about China’s trade behavior, but the number of objections to the duties “speaks volumes about the damage that additional tariffs will do.”