Coalition for a Prosperous America Calls for Protections for Domestic Manufacturers, Change in COAC Makeup

The Coalition for a Prosperous America published advice to the transitioning Joe Biden administration, which includes a call to continue and intensify the kind of tariff and sanctions policies used by the Trump administration, and to go further, such as by raising the bound tariffs at the World Trade Organization. The CPA also asked for countrywide withhold release orders for forced labor, a reduction of the $800 de minimis level and a change in the makeup of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee. “The membership of COAC should equal representation by domestic businesses and labor harmed by unlawful imports, rather than being dominated by multinationals and importer interests,” they said.

They also called for the continuation of Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, Section 201 tariffs on solar panels, and for more Section 301 actions. “Trade preference programs should be reexamined and narrowed. Many current tariff-free imports displace domestic workers and/or prevent rebuilding of important industrial sectors. Auto parts and chemical manufacturing are two examples,” they wrote.

The memo says the supply chains and production of semiconductors, telecom, medicines, advanced and basic materials, food and renewable energy should be concentrated in the U.S. “through tariffs, quotas, incentives, government procurement, financing, and other tools.”

“Nearshoring cannot substitute for the economic power of onshoring,” they wrote. “Building jobs and purchasing power should prevail over the importation of cheap goods.”

Using currency issues as a countervailable subsidy in Commerce Department investigations “should be aggressively used in many products and against any countries that deliberately devalue,” they wrote. They encouraged more self-initiated antidumping and CVD cases, and said the government should find ways to make trade case litigation cheaper for domestic firms.