OPINION:
President Trump’s promise to level the playing field for international trade is being fulfilled but not without substantial pushback and interference. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is up for re-election, is urging Mr. Trump to lift the billions worth of tariffs he imposed on the European Union in October, particularly the ones on its alcoholic products.
If Mr. Johnson and his fellow EU leaders would drop their tariffs on U.S. bourbon and eliminate the millions they provide in anti-competitive subsidies against the U.S., the president would probably follow suit. Unfortunately, they have taken that possibility off the table — at least for now, until they feel the impact of the new U.S. tariffs for an extended period and have no choice but to negotiate.
Even though the long-range prospect for the president’s tariff strategy is good, its full effect may never be realized, because Washington’s left-wing deep state bureaucrats are determined to undercut it. If the anti-Trump, overzealous regulatory agenda of these Obama holdovers is not stopped soon, foreign nationals will get another one over on U.S. workers and producers.
Much of the tariff disruption threat is coming from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) – a little heard of bureau within the Treasury Department that approves and regulates alcohol labeling in the United States.
TTB’s provisional head administrators, Mary Ryan and Daniel Riordan, despise the president’s order that stipulates they must cut two regulations for every new one created. To stealthily evade this requirement, the bureau is publicizing Notice No. 176, a massive new rule currently on the table, posing it as an effort to lessen the compliance burdens associated with alcohol labeling and advertising. Conservatives see through this sham, though. A letter to President Trump from 17 conservative groups stated, “Although cloaking it as a deregulatory effort, No. 176 would add two and a half times the number of regulations governing the distilled spirits industry.” Those regulations include pages upon pages of costly new mandates from whiskey barrel sizes to relabeling requirements.
TTB’s new rule would increase compliance costs by hundreds of millions of dollars on American alcohol producers. The unprecedented amount of mandates would prevent much of the president’s tariff price levelling from being realized and greatly reduce U.S. producers’ competitiveness in the domestic and global markets.
While disappointing, this degree of obstruction to the president’s agenda should be expected from TTB. The bureau is a historically left-wing institution. Its leaders have frequently donated money to Democrat causes, including the Hillary Clinton campaign. They employ differing sets of standards based on their desired political outcomes.
Americans for Limited Government pointed out that, in 2017, TTB threatened one company with hefty monetary penalties if it didn’t abide by TTB’s permit requests and regulations. However, it allowed Mercer’s Dairy, a New York-based competitor with major ties to Hillary Clinton, to disregard the TTB rulebook. That’s not regulation; that’s corruption.
Needless to say, these bureaucrats are content with their new Notice 176 significantly disrupting the executive branch’s national security trade strategy. Above all else, they are partisan operatives determined to supplant the conservative agenda – regardless of the cost to American businesses.
This level of obstruction should be grounds for Republicans in Congress to call for the Treasury Department to replace the bureau’s current leaders, especially since both are only serving in provisional roles. At least Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, for one, has been very vocal about the TTB’s practices. The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, which he chairs, has passed language condemning TTB’s abuse. Hopefully, more conservative legislators will follow his initiative.
At the very least, TTB’s threat posed to the White House tariffs is deserving of a hearing in Congress. Since Mr. Kennedy has taken this mantle, he should increase the momentum by calling TTB’s leaders to testify before the subcommittee.
Protecting American businesses and workers is too important to be stymied by unelected, partisan bureaucrats. The TTB efforts to interfere with President Trump’s international trade initiatives must be stopped. Congress must resolve this issue, and soon.
• Terry Thompson was a former professor of economics for John Brown University for 11 years.
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