Lobbying Blitz Against Section 232 Auto Tariffs This Week Precedes More Bill Introductions
The auto industry is launching a media blitz this week with TV and print ads, and a "drive-in" press event of American workers from German, Japanese and other foreign-owned auto plants. The TV ad, paid for by the Association of Global Automakers, uses the kind of imagery often used in political ads -- a barn in a field of grain -- and a deep-voiced narrator noting that foreign automakers have plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Ohio. Every one of those states voted for Trump in 2016.
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An Indiana Republican in the House of Representatives was joined by 148 colleagues from both parties on a July 18 letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that said imported autos aren't a national security threat. Rep. Jackie Walorski wrote, "the taxpayer dollars being used by the Commerce Department for this investigation would be better spent on other endeavors."
Two Southern senators -- one Democratic, one Republican -- will speak at the drive-in rally, and they spoke on the Senate floor July 18 explaining why they are fighting against the tariffs. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said that 40 years ago, Tennessee was the third-poorest state, and its "low-paying textile jobs were fleeing outside our country." Then Nissan, Saturn and Volkswagen opened assembly plants in Tennessee, and more than 900 auto parts suppliers arrived to serve them. Now, he said, there are 136,000 auto plant workers in the state, and family income is just over the national average. "Why in the world would our government raise our taxes and destroy our jobs in this way?" Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., said foreign auto imports are not a national security threat. "But you know what is a threat? A 25 percent tax on these imported goods," he said. It would "inflict serious damage on a booming industry in my state."
Jones said he's talking with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who is working on a bill to constrain the president's power to impose tariffs under the Section 232 authority (see 1807130019). He added that he and Alexander are co-sponsoring a bill that they intend to introduce early next week addressing the possibility of auto tariffs. However, while Portman's staff says his bill would require a vote before auto tariffs could go into effect, Alexander described his legislation as advisory. He said the bill is designed "to encourage the Trump administration to reconsider the dangerous steps" it is making toward raising taxes on imported auto parts.
Both domestic and foreign manufacturers rely on imported parts, whether from Mexico, China or the automaker's home country of Japan, South Korea or Germany. President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House July 18, said he doesn't want to take vengeance on Europe if trade negotiations later this month don't go his way, but he will. In an interview on Fox News earlier this month, he said cars are the "big one" when it comes to leverage in trade negotiations.
One of the few voices supporting worldwide Section 232 tariffs is the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a labor-supported trade group. AAM President Scott Paul wrote a letter to Congress July 17 that called the Corker bill and its House companion bill "the trade surrender act," and said that requiring congressional approval of the tariffs is "a burdensome obstacle that delays implementation and potentially denies action to protect America’s national security. The bill also severely limits the authority of the commander-in-chief at a critical time." He said the steel and aluminum tariffs on allies have finally moved Europe and others to confront Chinese overcapacity.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of the AAM letter.