As President Donald Trump threatens to slap tariffs on more and more Chinese-made products that are shipped to the U.S., American companies that use and sell those products are pushing back — and are even siding with China.
According to The Wall Street Journal, representatives from several companies have given their two cents on the tariffs during public hearings that began last week. The common theme, the Journal noted, is that U.S. companies aren't a fan of the tariffs that are adding costs to both them and their customers.
"All we're doing is making it more competitive for the freight to find its way to Canada or to Mexico, because they won't have to pay the tariffs on their equipment and they'll be able to put forward a product at a lower price," Virginia Port Authority chief executive John Reinhart said.
The general counsel of television manufacturer Element Electronics, meanwhile, said during testimony to the U.S. Trade Representative's office that his company might be forced to relocate its plant to Mexico in lieu of raising prices.
"Element faces a classic tariff inversion that creates an incentive to import TVs rather than produce them here in America," David Baer said.
Added Monica Gorman of New Balance Athletics, "We use imported components from China to sustain the scale of our U.S. footwear manufacturing that keeps 1,600 people fully employed. The U.S. supply chain is simply too small and too limited in scale to support the current depth and breadth of our U.S. manufacturing."
The U.S. already has placed tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese-made products as the Trump administration tries to force China to be a better trading partner. Representatives from both sides have been in discussions for more than a year, but China has responded with tariffs on U.S. products.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, which kicks off Friday, to discuss the trade situation.
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