Apparel and Footwear Industry CEO Counters Administration’s “Appropriate” Response

April 6, 2018 | WASHINGTON, D.C

The American Apparel & Footwear Association’s President and CEO Rick Helfenbein released the following statement in response to President Trump’s announcement that he is directing the U.S. Trade Representative to consider an additional $100 billion in tariffs on U.S. imports from China.

“It is time to wake up – we are being marched into a trade war and the losers will be American workers, American consumers, and the American economy. The decision to consider an additional $100 billion is far from ‘appropriate.’ Tariffs are hidden, regressive taxes paid for by hardworking American families and result in lost American jobs, higher prices, and damage to the American economy, plain and simple. Additional tariffs only add fuel to the fire and create an environment of one-upmanship that will not solve the problem we are trying to fix. We cannot treat this like a school yard fight. This is a fight where everyone loses.

“We encourage the administration to focus on the problem at hand, to work with our international allies to fix the problem, and not take this out on American workers and American consumers. Additional tariffs will not fix this problem and are not an ‘appropriate’ response.”

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