Americans for Free Trade, a coalition representing 162 trade associations, including PPAI, and every part of the U.S. economy, has actively sought to represent industry’s position to officials in Washington on trade issues, including during the coronavirus outbreak.

This week, a letter from the coalition urged the White House to include the suspension of additional tariffs placed on certain imports under Section 301 of the Trade Act and under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act in its emergency measures to mitigate the economic harm from the spread of the coronavirus, as doing so would provide tax relief to American farmers, manufacturers, families and consumers without having to wait on action from Congress.

The letter says that suspending those tariffs, and the subsequent suspension of U.S. trading partners’ retaliatory tariffs, would return discretionary income to American families, encouraging capital expenditures by U.S. companies and instilling market confidence during this difficult time. Moreover, as the tariffs are a set of policies that were implemented using executive authority, suspending these tariffs can be taken quickly and decisively by the Administration without further authorization steps from Congress.