This week, Americans for Affordable Products (AAP), a coalition PPAI has joined of more than 200 businesses and trade associations seeking to stop the Border Adjustment Tax (BAT), released a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan, U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and issued a response to President Trump’s address to Congress.

In the correspondence to Congressional leadership the AAP wrote, “The goal of tax reform should be to lower effective tax rates for businesses of all sizes and ensure Americans benefit with more money in their wallet. We believe the Border Adjustment Tax would do the exact opposite by raising effective tax rates for many companies to well over 100 percent.

“The Border Adjustment Tax is not simple or fair. It proposes a massive tax increase on consumers and would result in increased costs on everyday necessities like food, clothing, gasoline and prescription drugs—necessities that Americans rely on daily—by as much as $1,700. It is really a ‘cost of living tax’ that will make the lives of millions of middle-class Americans harder and more expensive.”

Click here for the full letter.

In its response to President Trump's Tuesday night address to Congress, Joshua Baca, AAP spokesperson, said, “We applaud President Trump for working to reform an obsolete tax code in order to create an environment with greater job and economic growth for America’s working families. As the debate unfolds on tax reform, it is evident that more and more members of Congress do not support the Border Adjustment Tax, which would reward multinational companies with a permanent tax holiday while asking working families to foot a trillion-dollar bill. Middle-income households did not vote last November for $1,700 in additional costs for basic necessities such as gasoline, clothes and medicine so that profitable companies already exploiting tax loopholes can operate virtually tax free. Our coalition—which represents America’s largest employment sector or nearly one in four jobs—will not rest in our work to convince Congress it should listen to its constituents not special interests, and oppose the Border Adjustment Tax.”