Press Releases

WASHINGTON—U.S. Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., a Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, today introduced legislation to require the U.S. Department of the Treasury to swiftly provide a report to Congress on the impact that U.S. tariffs increases—imposed during the Trump administration and largely retained by the Biden administration—are having on inflation. 

Murphy has been a consistent critic of these tariffs, noting that they are the equivalent of a tax on American families and companies, and has called for them to be repealed or reduced as a way to lower prices for consumers in this country. Studies conducted by organizations like the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Progressive Policy Institute have concluded that repealing these tariffs could meaningfully reduce inflation, and key federal officials have echoed this point.      

“American families and businesses are struggling with sky-high inflation. The President and Congress have a responsibility to take all reasonable steps to alleviate the economic pain people are feeling,” said Murphy. “My bill requires the federal government to assess whether U.S. tariffs imposed on a wide range of imported products are a factor contributing to elevated inflation. If the answer is yes, as both common sense and basic economics strongly suggest, the federal government should act to repeal or reduce those tariffs in order to provide price relief to the American public.”

Murphy’s bill, called the Repeal Tariffs to Reduce Inflation Act of 2022, would require the Treasury Department, in coordination with the Office of the United States Trade Representative and the United States International Trade Commission, to prepare the assessment within 60 days and to submit it to the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. The bill requires the report to estimate the inflationary impact of the following, both individually and in the aggregate: 

• U.S. tariffs imposed on a wide array of imported products from China pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. These tariffs have done little to change China’s abusive trade practices, but have significantly harmed U.S. households and businesses.
  

• U.S. tariffs imposed on aluminum and steel imports from many countries pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. These tariffs were justified on questionable “national security” grounds and have served to alienate many U.S. allies and partners.
  

• U.S. tariffs imposed on imported items like solar panels and washing machines pursuant to Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974.
  

• The expiration, at the end of 2020, of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a program that waives U.S. tariffs on certain imports from more than 110 lower-income countries to encourage economic development through increased trade with the United States. Murphy has been leading the effort in Congress to reauthorize GSP and to make reforms to the program so that more products from more countries can enter the U.S. tariff-free, benefiting U.S. consumers.

To see the text of the legislation, click here.

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