Trump Ally Urges Veto of Miscellaneous Tariff Bill

The Coalition for a Prosperous America, whose chairman is Donald Trump ally Dan DiMicco, said the president should consider vetoing the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, the group said in a news release. The Senate unanimously last month (see 1807270003) and passed the House of Representatives 402-0 before that (see 1801170012). The MTB "has flown beneath the radar and is a holdover from the past," said DiMicco, who was a trade adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign, and is a former CEO of steel producer Nucor. "At precisely the moment when the president is tackling foreign trade cheating and trying to create leverage, Congress is again engaging in unilateral trade disarmament. This bill fails to consider that many of the products included could be manufactured in the US.”

Importers who wish to get an item on the list should submit the request to the International Trade Commission, and if no domestic producers are found, the item is included. But CPA says the bill is a barrier to re-establishing domestic production. "America overconsumes and underproduces, as evidenced by our decades-long deindustrialization and our trade deficit. Congress needs to pivot from listening to an import lobby that supports cheap imported consumption to a consistent strategy of increasing domestic production of food and goods. We encourage President Trump to veto this legislation since it runs counter to his emerging trade strategy," Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA, said in a statement.