Chamber Emphasizes Need for More Legal Immigration Over Tariff Removal
In its annual State of American Business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce chose to emphasize the need to double the level of legal immigration, its opposition to Build Back Better legislation and what it sees as overly aggressive antitrust enforcement over the need to remove tariffs on hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Chinese imports. Three years ago, the Chamber was arguing that the tariffs needed to go (see 1901100007), but last year, admitted it was not politically feasible as it laid out its trade agenda (see 2101130057).
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Chamber CEO Suzanne Clark did mention trade in the context of the U.S. abandoning the work to seal a deal with the United Kingdom. "On trade, our nation is standing still," she said, which really means the U.S. is being left behind as the European Union adds more free trade agreements.
In response to questions from reporters after her Jan. 11 speech, Clark did say that China is a complex issue, and that the administration needs to find a cohesive strategy. When asked about how U.S. businesses will deal with pressure from China not to disavow Xinjiang suppliers at the same time that the U.S. is tightening up the ban on goods imported with forced labor, Clark said that figuring out how to deal with China's abuses while still finding ways to collaborate "is going to define American leadership in this generation." She then linked that to a breakdown in civility in U.S. politics, which the Chamber says is eroding Congress's ability to get legislation passed that can help business competitiveness, and is a bad example to the rest of the world. "It’s time to stop pretending the enemy is here, and for Americans to unite and do hard complex things," she said.