Regulations & EHS&S
SOCMA calls on USTR to delist chemicals from Chinese tariffs 27th August 2018
In testimony to the Section 301 Committee, Matt Moedritzer, SOCMA Manager of Legal and Government Relations, emphasized three particular aspects of specialty chemical manufacturing:
- Alternative sources are finite because specialty chemicals – as the name implies – are specially made to meet particular purity, quality and performance demands;
- U.S. chemical manufacturing is a value-added industry in which manufacturers along the value chain must import chemicals they then use to manufacture new chemicals; and
- The combined effect of proposed tariffs and Chinese retaliatory tariffs may overwhelm some small- and medium-sized U.S. specialty chemical manufacturers.
Specialty chemical sectors are driven by intellectual property, and SOCMA supports efforts by the Administration to resolve long-standing concerns over Chinese intellectual property theft. Nevertheless, when combined with the fact that one-fifth of China’s latest retaliatory lists are chemicals, these proposed tariffs will create a disproportionate competitive disadvantage. SOCMA also supports the Administration’s goal to reach zero-tariff trade, but imposing heavy taxation on domestic specialty chemical manufacturers – made worse by retaliatory tariffs – is not the proper method to achieve that aim.
SOCMA encouraged the Section 301 Committee to remove the listed chemicals, specifically the hundreds of individual product lines SOCMA will provide in comments.