Most business coalitions have been cool, and sometimes even hostile, to President Trump’s trade agenda. One group, however, has helped to steer those the moves: the Coalition for a Prosperous America. The business and labor group formed a decade ago to be the counterweight to the much larger Chamber of Commerce and has found its voice in the Trump era.
It has the ear of the administration. Dan DiMicco, the group’s chairman and the former chairman of Nucor Steel, was appointed to Trump’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations last year, a transition team. He was also considered for the position of U.S. trade representative, though ultimately Robert Lighthizer was tapped instead.
“We educate and advocate in the administration and in Congress,” says Michael Stumo, CEO of the coalition. He declares that Lighthizer, who has spearheaded the administration’s hard-driving negotiations with Canada, Mexico and China, is “the best trade rep. we’ve had in U.S. history. We’re a big fans of [Commerce Secretary] Wilbur Ross too.”
The coalition represents primarily the groups that make or grow things exclusively inside the U.S., and therefore don’t see a need to support free trade policies. Its membership ranges from Nucor Steel, the nation’s largest steel producer, and other manufacturers, such as Atlas Tool and Die Works, to various farm groups and labor unions, such as the Teamsters and United Steel Workers. It has no international companies. IRS filings indicate it had a budget of $360,000 in 2013, which rose to $538,000 by 2016. Stumo declined to publicly give its current budget.
“It’s kind of like the cantina scene from ‘Star Wars,’” Stumo said, noting its diverse membership. The coalition’s membership includes “Trump supporters, Hillary supporters, Bernie supporters. Every durn thing.”
What they have in common, though, is the belief that “trade imbalances are wrong, destabilizing and should not exist” and that China’s cheating on trade policy has to be addressed, as should its manipulation of currency.
“We agree that we need some sort of an industrial strategy in the U.S.,” Stumo said. “Every other country has an industrial strategy. We are afraid of ‘picking winners and losers’ but we do it every day with every government decision. … The reason we are not good at it is that we don’t admit that we do it.”
The group lobbies the administration, but its main agenda is simply to publicly press the case for trade policies opposed by other coalitions like the Chamber, the Business Roundtable, and the National Associations of Manufacturers, whose members rely on supply chains outside of the U.S. Its budget is small compared to other trade associations, although Stumo declined to give an exact figure.
It is currently pressing the administration not to grant any exemptions to other countries from the administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs. The tariffs are intended to counter China’s flooding the markets, a goal that would be undermined by exemptions. Canada and Mexico are pressuring the U.S. to restore exemptions they previously enjoyed now that the negotiations for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade are complete.
Many companies with supply chains in those countries are suffering from tariffs those foreign governments applied in retaliation for losing the exemptions and are likewise pressuring the administration. Stumo argues that switching from tariffs to quota systems, allowing in set amounts of goods, would be one way to resolve the issue.
It is also pushing the administration to follow through with its threats to place tariffs on another $267 billion worth of Chinese goods. The administration has already placed tariffs on $250 billion worth of the goods. The additional tariffs would ensure that all imports are covered.
“We think we should decouple from China,” Stumo said.
The coalition is not pressuring the administration to form new trade deals with other countries. While the White House officially announced last week that it plans to seek deals with Japan and the European Union, Stumo argued that the potential benefits of such deals are “oversold.”
The group does, though, want the administration to do more to protect the domestic agriculture industry, arguing that that sector has taken the most direct hits from foreign countries’ tariffs.
The coalition does not have a firm position on the potential auto tariffs the administration is considering, in part because it is unclear what the tariffs would be. Nevertheless, “We would probably lean in favor of it,” Stumo said. The Commerce Department is expected to release a report later this year justifying the need for them.
