La Crosse, WI—After Rep. Ron Kind led four of his colleagues in a letter to Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow calling for the deferment of import duty payments over the weekend, the Administration deferred the collection of payments for 90 days. The tariffs on imported goods are paid for in the form of periodic duty payments, which were set to be collected on Tuesday, April 21st. If the Administration had done nothing, it would have been extremely harmful to businesses.
“Tariffs on goods that companies need to import are harmful during a normal economic time. With COVID-19 stagnating the world economy, these same tariffs could be life or death for small businesses. Many companies are not currently operating as business as usual; if these duties were still collected as scheduled this week, these companies might have been forced to make hard choices like firing employees or closing altogether,” said Rep. Ron Kind. “I’m glad the Administration heard our concerns and agreed that a deferment on these payments was the right thing to do. This will help Main Street businesses that are experiencing economic hardship be able to control cost and not be forced to raise prices on everyday goods such as children’s clothing, which harms working families.
Rep. Kind is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Trade and the co-chair of the New Democrat Coalitions’ Trade Task Force. The Ways and Means Committee is the most powerful – and the oldest – committee in the House of Representatives.
Read the letter here.
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