Friday, March 14, 2025

The U.S. Chamber on March 11 submitted comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in response to its Federal Register Notice seeking input in connection with its review of unfair trade practices by other countries. In the notice, USTR outlined a focus on G20 countries and those with which the United States has its largest bilateral trade deficits.

No to Broad-Based Tariffs: Drawing on extensive member input, the Chamber focused on the need for a more proactive U.S. trade agenda, the potential harms of broad-based tariffs, and the inappropriateness of tariffs as a response to issues such as trade deficits, which do not arise from foreign trade barriers. The comments note that U.S. businesses need additional enforceable trade agreements and that pursuing such pacts is a good avenue to eliminating trade barriers:

“The best pro-growth response to foreign trade barriers is to negotiate enforceable trade agreements to eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers, open foreign markets, and guarantee reciprocity. Such an approach will provide U.S. manufacturers with predictability in our supply chains to drive international exports.”

Trade Deficit Myths: The U.S. Chamber also contends that the overall U.S. trade deficit is not the result of foreign trade barriers, expressing agreement with the vast majority of economists who argue that “foreign import barriers and exports subsidies are not the reason for the US trade deficit,” adding:

“In fact, higher tariffs lead to higher trade deficits, not surpluses. According to a Chamber review of data from the Geneva-based International Trade Center and UNCTAD, 25 of the 30 countries with the world’s highest tariffs have trade deficits. The overwhelming majority of these high-tariff countries have very low incomes, and the few high-tariff countries with trade surpluses—such as Algeria, Chad, and Congo—serve as poor models for U.S. economic policy.”