The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) is horrified by President Donald Trump's "continued escalation of trade tensions with China." The body, which represents all of the leading plant and equipment manufacturers for the North American aggregates sector, says that it is "opposed" to "the Trump administration’s plan to move forward with $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods."
According to AEM president Dennis Slater: "This extreme use of tariffs hurts our nation’s access to global markets and threatens many of the 1.3 million good-paying equipment manufacturing jobs our industry supports. It’s clear that everyone loses in a trade war. This administration should be looking for ways to improve our trade relationship with China, not doubling down on tactics that only lead to continued retaliatory actions."
Trade and trade policy will be the focus of the AEM's third I Make America Town Hall Tour stop this week. The association will hold the meeting at the Terex AWP's Genie Showroom, in Redmond, Washington, this Thursday, September 20, from 11 am - 12 pm CT. The town hall will be livestreamed and feature an expert panel discussing how tariffs and similar trade policy tactics impact the equipment manufacturing industry.
AEM co-signed a letter with dozens of other manufacturing groups and associations that was sent last week to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer urging the Trump Administration not to move forward with this latest round of tariffs.
"Combining the announced $200 billion in additional tariffs on Chinese goods with the $50 billion already in place, would make up for about half of the dollar amount in goods imported to the U.S. from China just last year," says AEM. "Leaders of equipment manufacturing companies have spoken out in response to the Trump administration’s trade policies throughout 2018."
The associations says: "To date $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods have already been put into effect by the Trump administration, including $34 billion worth of goods that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection started to collect duties in July, as outlined in a published list made available by the federal register. Then in August another $16 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods went into effect after a public notice and comment process, including a public hearing."
China had already retaliated by imposing $34 billion of tariffs on U.S. goods.
AEM speaks for more than 950 companies. These machinery manufacturers produce, between them, more than 200 different product lines in the aggregates, construction and agriculture-related industry sectors worldwide. The equipment manufacturing industry in the United States supports 1.3 million jobs and contributes roughly $159 billion to the US economy every year.
Fore more information on AEM and its activities, click here.
