Executives from a slate of mid-size industrial companies - including makers of steel pipes, kitchen cabinets and coat hangers - said at an event with lawmakers on Capitol Hill that for years the U.S. had been losing out on tariff revenue and American companies had been forced out of business by Chinese firms that exploited trade rules.
“We’ve been forced to close factories, reduce employment and reduce investment,“ said Tom Muth, executive vice president of Zekelman Industries, an independent pipe and tube producer.
Milton Magnus, CEO of M&B Metal Products Company, Inc, which produces wire garment hangers for the dry cleaning and textile industries, said his 82-year-old family business had been fighting illegal trade practices by China for 22 years.
“Before the ink was dry on the order, China was already evading the order by transshipping through other countries, hopping from country to country, changing the names, shifting shipments, just to stay ahead of us,“ Magnus said.
China's embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on the executives' charges.
In an address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. has been “ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth,“ adding that his administration would resort to reciprocal tariffs or non-tariff measures for any retaliation by U.S. trading partners.
“I’ve watched American factories shutter not because they failed, but because enforcement failed them. It’s unacceptable,“ said Betsy Natz, CEO of the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association.
David Rashid, executive chairman of auto-parts maker Plews and Edelmann, said the U.S. needed an enforcement system that punishes cheaters.
“Not just fines, but prison,“ he said. (Reporting by Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom; additional reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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