BETHESDA, Md. — The Auto Care Association (ACA) and National Retail Federation are among more than 100 trade groups that are asking Congress to intervene in President Trump's plan to levy 25-percent tariffs against some 1,200 products imported from China.
"Congress must ensure that hardworking families in the United States are not forced to pay the price for China's bad behavior," the trade groups said in an April 11 letter addressed to the House Ways and Means Committee, which held a hearing that day on the proposed tariffs.
"Many of the products that are currently on the proposed U.S. tariff list are consumer goods," the letter said. "Even more troubling, the proposed list includes machinery, parts, chemicals and components that U.S. manufacturers and their workers need to make American products."
The Trump administration's proposed tariffs do not adequately account for the role of the global supply chain in product production and assembly, the letter said.
Furthermore, U.S. farmers and manufacturers face great uncertainty because of China's threat to retaliate against the U.S. with tariffs against U.S. manufactured and agricultural goods, it said.
"This would hurt the economy as a whole, as well as jobs and consumers in every state," the letter said. "Everyone loses in a trade war."
Besides the ACA and NRF, signatories to the letter include many state retail federations, the Footwear Distributors and Retailers Association, the Truck & Engine Manufacturers Association, several state trucking associations and the Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Associates.