PPAI has joined Americans for Free Trade, a coalition of U.S. businesses, trade organizations and workers united against tariffs in a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy expressing strong support for elements of the Trade Act of 2021 that were included in the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) that recently passed the Senate. More than 170 trade associations signed the letter to Speaker Pelosi and Leader McCarthy.

“As companies in the U.S. continue to recover from the global pandemic, we continue to call upon the administration to resolve the ongoing trade war with China,” the letter says. “To date, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has collected over $92 billion dollars in tariffs from U.S. companies who import products from China. These taxes increase the cost of doing business in the United States and risk exacerbating increasing concerns regarding inflation.”

Section 73001 of USICA would reinvigorate the exclusion process administered by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for products subject to additional tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Section 73001 of USICA would immediately reinstate product exclusions that expired throughout 2020—in the middle of the pandemic and economic recession—through December 31, 2022. It would also require USTR to implement a new product exclusion process and outlines specific criteria for USTR to consider in determining whether to grant an exclusion.

The full text of the letter may be found here.