TPA Denounces President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, President Donald Trump announced a 10-percent baseline tariff on all imports and listed “reciprocal tariffs” for more than 60 countries, including the Heard and McDonald Islands, which is only inhabited by Penguins. The President also announced an end to the de minimis exemption for low-cost imports from China and a 25-percent duty on autos.

In response, David Williams, Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) President offered the following comment:

“American consumers and taxpayers should be appalled by this executive overreach. President Trump continues his departure from America’s past commitment to free trade. The combination of universal tariffs on imports with the already implemented tariffs on our close trading partners has the potential to greatly damage to American businesses, consumers, and future economic growth. Tariffs are tax on Americans, and these measures represent one of the highest tax increases on American taxpayers in history.

“If President Trump wants to revitalize manufacturing in America, he should do so by lowering corporate taxes, tear down trade barriers (beginning with those that raise the costs of manufacturing inputs, and otherwise liberalize burdensome federal regulation, such as by pursuing permitting reform. American manufacturing consumes roughly 50 percent of imports. Within the sector, companies that import and export account for four fifths of employment. Constricting global trade will wreak havoc on the very manufacturing sector the administration is purporting to champion.

“Tariffs only provide narrow benefits to targeted companies, all while dispersing far greater costs across the economy. In the first Trump adminstration, steel and aluminum tariffs destroyed 32 American manufacturing jobs for every one they saved.

“The trade policy agenda pursued by the White House pushes global leaders away from the U.S., leaving American businesses behind along the way. Damaging relationships with trade partners – especially in Asia – creates more trade barriers and makes China a more attractive option. This is bad on both economic and geopolitical grounds.  

“Ending the de minimis exemption for low costs goods from China will directly affect millions of American consumers and businesses. Millions of shipments enter the country under the exemption annually. To combat the real concerns regarding slave and slave-adjacent labor in China, U.S. policymakers should make policy targeted toward bad labor practices directly.

“TPA has strongly supported legislative action by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to end the 25-percent tariffs on Canadian imports. The Senate recently passed Sen. Kaine’s S.J. Res 37, and we encourage the House of Representatives to enact it expeditiously. Congress must reassert its authority over tariffs to prevent harmful protectionist policies from the executive branch.

“Just this morning,  Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) unveiled legislation to require congressional assent for new tariffs. This is another deeply necessary measure to protect American consumers and businesses against the abuse of unilateral tariff authorities.

“TPA represents millions of taxpayers and consumers who stand to be harmed by these disastrous measures, and strongly urges the President to rescind these tariffs. For Congress, it is imperative that they work quickly to rein in the unilateral trade powers of the Presidency. Those powers were delegated, likely unconstitutionally, and can be reassumed by the Article I branch at any time.”

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 Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.