U.S. firms scramble for Trump tariff relief

Paul Shekoski thinks he presented a good case why the weather stations and other products his company makes in China should be spared from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. As a small-scale employer, he’s not optimistic he will win.

Shekoski, chief executive of the Primex Family of Cos. in Lake Geneva, Wis., is among the hundreds of U.S. companies filing requests before Tuesday’s deadline for exclusions from the initial round of tariffs imposed on Chinese imports.

While Shekoski has testified against the duties, asked elected representatives for help and filed for exclusions on almost 80 products, he puts the odds of getting them approved at less than 10 percent.

“It’s swimming upstream,” said Shekoski, whose business employs about 200 people. “We’re fairly small and not very visible, so we’re kind of caught in the process.”

Companies including Apple successfully avoided having tariffs imposed on products, and General Motors and HP are among those seeking duty exclusions for goods such as the China-built Buick Envision and toner cartridges. But some smaller businesses such as Primex say they fear they lack the clout and resources to prevail, and they can’t afford to quickly switch suppliers.

Shekoski said his supply chain was built over three decades and the duties are enough to wipe out his annual profit, which would threaten the 75-year-old business.

Meanwhile Ohio-based Weastec Inc. has filed more than 60 requests for exclusions from tariffs on switches and other automotive parts it imports from a sister company in China for warehousing and just-in-time delivery to Honda and other automakers in the U.S., said Doug Ernst, senior manager of operations at the firm, which employs about 190.

The parts are made with unique tooling and manufacturing processes that only exist in China and can’t be produced in a cost-effective manner in the U.S. or any other country, Ernst said.

The initial round of duties would add $635,000 in costs in the coming year, and the total with the third tranche of duties would be $4.1 million, he said.

“I hope I’m wrong, but I would think that the bigger players would get more consideration than folks like us would,” Ernst said. “Money talks and the big businesses get more press and economically they’re more, I guess, critical to the overall country.”

Each request for exclusion is judged by career trade experts on the same criteria, regardless of the requester, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement. Decisions are based on whether a product is available only from China, whether duties “would cause severe economic harm” to the company or U.S. interests, and whether the item is strategically important.

The Trump administration has imposed three rounds of tariffs, starting with 25 percent on $34 billion in goods July 6 and on $16 billion worth of products Aug. 23.