Business coalition urging US Congress to reclaim its power over trade and tariffs gains broad support
- The Tariff Reform Coalition represents a diverse cross-section of US industry, including American Express, Google, Toyota and the National Retail Federation
- ‘We now have tariffs on something like 20 per cent of all trade without one single minute of congressional input into those decisions’
Riverdale Mills knows lobster traps like nobody’s business. And it knows trade. The Northbridge, Massachusetts, wire maker claims bragging rights for inventing the modern lobster trap, with some 85 per cent of US traps and over half of those globally using its specialty wire mesh.
That has forced the family-owned company to navigate the Trump administration’s trade policies after tariffs on its steel imports doubled in March 2018.
Riverdale Mills welcomed Wednesday’s announcement that tens of thousands of US companies have joined forces in nudging Congress to carve back some of the trade and tariff authority it has ceded to the executive branch since US President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.
“I don’t want to judge a policy on its intent but rather judge it on its outcome. And the outcome has been very bad,” said James Knott, Riverdale’s chief executive and, with his father, the company’s co-founder. “We export 45 per cent of what we make and need competitive prices on raw materials.”
The idea for the new group, known as the Tariff Reform Coalition, came together this summer amid growing yelps of pain from a broad swathe of retail, export and manufacturing companies facing mounting tariffs that have so far yielded limited concessions from China and other foreign trading partners.
The coalition, made up of some two dozen powerful industry groups, represents a diverse cross-section of US industry, including such giants as American Express, Sam’s Club, Google, Toyota, Sony, Macy’s and Ralph Lauren.