Lobbying on Steel, Aluminum Tariffs May Trigger Foreign Agents Registration Act
Importers that are lobbying the executive branch so that they can continue to bring foreign metals in without tariffs may need to disclose their activities under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, lawyers from Covington & Burling wrote in a client…
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advisory March 28. It may seem strange that lobbying on commercial tariffs could trigger FARA, they wrote, but they pointed to the history of tariff lobbying to show how it could happen. When SUVs were reclassified as trucks, rather than cars, and therefore imports were subject to a 25 percent tariff rather than a 2.5 percent tariff, heavy lobbying ensued. At a congressional hearing in 1991, senators asked whether that lobbying should have been covered by FARA. "In testimony and written submissions before Congress examining the automobile tariff lobbying, Department of Justice officials stressed that lobbying directed at 'enlarging the U.S. market for goods produced in [another] country' was predominantly advancing a foreign interest," the advisory said.