U.S. Senate quietly votes to cut tariffs on hundreds of Chinese goods

Hamilton Beach Brands Holding

27/07/2018 24:04

By Andy Sullivan
    WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - As trade tensions escalate
between Washington and Beijing, the U.S. Senate quietly passed
legislation on Thursday that would lower trade barriers on
hundreds of items made in China.
    With no debate, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that
would cut or eliminate tariffs on toasters, chemicals and
roughly 1,660 other items made outside the United States.
    Nearly half of those items are produced in China, according
to a Reuters analysis of government records.
    The United States and China, the world's two largest
economies, are increasingly at loggerheads over trade. 
    U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a series of
punitive tariffs on Chinese imports in a bid to halt a Chinese
surge in high-technology industries that threatens to displace
U.S. dominance.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1UM19A China has retaliated with its own
duties on imports from the United States.
    The White House has not publicly taken a position on the
so-called miscellaneous tariff bill, which has now passed both
the Senate and the House of Representatives unanimously. The two
chambers need to resolve minor differences before they can send
the legislation to Trump to sign into law.
    Supporters of the bill have said it would boost the economy
by getting rid of tariffs set up to protect industries that no
longer exist in the United States. The National Association of
Manufacturers has said U.S. businesses pay $1 million a day on
such import duties.
    "It makes no sense because it is a direct and punishing tax
on making things in America and for creating jobs in America,"
the trade group's president, Jay Timmons, said in a prepared
statement celebrating the bill's passage. 
    Among the beneficiaries are companies that have moved
production offshore. 
    Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Co  HBB.N , for example, would
pay reduced tariffs on Chinese-made toaster ovens, steam irons
and other household appliances it used to make domestically.
    Some domestic manufacturers have complained the bill would
undercut their business by making it easier for rivals to bring
in cheap foreign goods. They said the bill punished smaller
firms that lack the ability to defend their interests in
Washington. 
    The version of the bill that passed the House in January
included 145 items that are made domestically, according to a
Reuters analysis.  L2N1QN00P 
    "There's no reason to block opportunity U.S. manufacturers
might have for rebuilding our manufacturing base," Michael
Korchmar, the head of a family-owned travel goods company in
Florida, said in a phone interview earlier this month.
    Korchmar earlier this year planned to hire up to 30 workers
in his Naples, Florida, factory, but he put those plans on hold
after being told by Reuters that the bill would lower tariffs on
an insulated food bag that he planned to produce. 
    Korchmar said he may yet decide to expand production,
because Democratic Senator Bill Nelson removed that item from
the bill after Reuters wrote about it in March.
    "We've got a good shot - we've lost a good bit of time and
we have to re-evaluate the market," Korchmar said.

 (Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Peter Cooney)
 ((andy.sullivan@thomsonreuters.com; +1-202-354-5864; Reuters
Messaging: andy.sullivan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))