Press Releases

Leading a bipartisan coalition of over 100 members of Congress, Representatives Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Ron Kind (WI-03), Darin LaHood (IL-18), and Jackie Walorski (IN-02) called on U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai to establish a new exclusion process that allows American businesses to request relief from the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports. At a time when many companies and their workers are struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this new exclusion process would help support domestic businesses and target the effects of tariffs on China, rather than U.S. companies and consumers. 

“While we strongly support tough and effective action to address China’s unfair trade practices, we believe that there must be a meaningful opportunity for American companies to petition for relief from tariffs…we feel that the current exclusions are insufficient to provide the badly needed relief for businesses and workers struggling with the unprecedented economic hardship caused by the pandemic,” lawmakers wrote. “To support American families, we once again urge USTR to create a pathway for targeted relief from Section 301 tariffs.”

An exclusion process is vital to ensuring that U.S. companies can seek relief if there are no alternative suppliers of the good, or if other special circumstances exist that could harm their ability to compete in the global marketplace. The lapse of critical exclusions, many of which expired on December 31, 2020, handed many businesses and their workers a significant bill while budgets were already tight.