HCA Alert: Latest Messaging from Americans for Free Trade Coalition

As you're likely aware, HCA is a member of the Americans for Free Trade Coalition, a broad coalition of American businesses, trade organizations, and workers united against tariffs. The coalition continues to work to end the trade war with China.

Here is what the coalition and all the partners are focused on as far as messaging:

• Keeping the tariffs in place isn’t being “tough on China.” These tariffs are only tough on the American businesses and consumers who have directly paid over $80 billion dollars in tariffs to the U.S. government as a result of the trade war with China.
• There’s a common misconception that China is paying these tariffs. They are not. It’s actually American businesses, farmers, manufacturers, consumers, and families who are paying the price for these ineffective tariffs that have done nothing to change China’s behavior.
• These tariffs are a misguided place-holder policy until the Biden Administration develops a comprehensive plan that might actually be effective in addressing legitimate issues with China. But until such plan is put in place, American businesses and farmers are being directly harmed to the tune of $80 billion and counting.
• Tariffs are taxes on American businesses. Keeping them in place undercuts the Biden Administration’s economic recovery efforts, raises costs for American consumers, impedes job growth, and acts as a drag on the U.S. economy as we recover from the global pandemic.
• Tariffs act as a “pay cut” for hard-working Americans. Imports offer American consumers greater selection and lower prices, which helps American families stretch their budgets, especially as they continue to struggle in the economic downturn.
  • Because tariffs raise the cost of many household items, American workers’ hardearned wages don’t stretch as far as to purchase these essential goods.
  • Tariffs kill jobs and place significant financial burdens on American businesses, making it hard for them to grow.
• Trade is vital to our manufacturing industries and is essential for positioning the U.S. as the leading global economy. Imports are critical for many American manufacturers who have no choice but to buy component parts from other countries because those parts cannot be sourced in the U.S. Imported inputs incorporated into goods manufactured in the U.S. make those goods more competitive when exported abroad.
• Short of lifting the tariffs, the Biden Administration should take the following steps to provide economic relief to American families:
  • Providing immediate and retroactive tariff duty relief on products needed for the U.S. response to the pandemic.
  • Reinstating expired Section 301 tariffs exclusions and extending existing exclusions
    
  • Reviewing, improving, and overhauling the tariff exclusions process