U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer indicated Wednesday that the administration was unlikely to allow businesses and trade groups to request exemptions from its tariffs against $200 billion Chinese goods, despite being directed by Congress to do so.
“I understand that there are people in Congress who want us to have an exclusion process,” Lighthizer said in an appearance before the House Ways and Means Committee. “It is something that we are looking at.”
He noted, however, that “our view until now” was not to do this, adding that the administration is “happy with our current process.”
Congress included a provision in the omnibus government funding bill passed earlier this month that directed the USTR office to create a process for requesting exemptions. Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., noted the legislation called on Lighthizer’s office to create the expanded process within 30 days. “We’re almost halfway to that deadline,” she said.
The White House has placed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods. It it has allowed businesses and trade associations to request exemptions on about $50 billion worth of the goods if they can prove that the product isn’t available otherwise and granting the exemption would not harm national security. For the remaining $200 billion in goods, the administration has not created any process to request exemptions. Business groups have heavily lobbied Congress and the White House to include one.
[Read more: Lighthizer hedges on whether Trump will lift steel tariffs against Canada and Mexico]
Congressional lawmakers tried to force the administration to do that by attaching such a provision to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, the bill that resolved the budget showdown.
The provision does not have the force of law, however, because it wasn’t included in the bill text but rather in the explanatory notes, a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee told the Washington Examiner.
Lighthizer noted Wednesday that the section was only in a “report” from the committee.
Trade groups see little change despite the budget bill. “We have not been given an indication that there will be an exclusion process for List 3 but given this weekend’s news, we are holding out hope,” said Christin Fernandez, spokesperson for the Retail Industry Leaders Association. Fernandez was referring to the White House’s announcement that it wasn’t going to increase the tariffs on the $200 billion in goods, currently at 10 percent, up to 25 percent, as it previously promised. The administration said it was making progress in trade talks with China so it would put the increase on hold.
