U.S. small businesses to
lobby Congress to oppose border tax
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[June 06, 2017]
By Ginger Gibson
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - About 60 small business owners and a representative from
retailer Big Lots will hold meetings with members of Congress this week
in an effort to oppose a proposed 'border adjustment tax', organizers
said.
Retailers led by large stores including Target, Best Buy and Autozone
are trying to get Republicans to abandon the tax as a piece of any
sweeping tax reform. The measure would impose a tax on imports while
favoring domestic production.
The meetings, which will begin on Tuesday and conclude on Thursday, will
include lawmakers and staff from several states including Arizona,
Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, focusing on districts represented by
members who have not taken a position on the tax or sit on the Ways and
Means Committee. They hope to convince them to oppose the tax.
The meetings are the latest effort by retailers to lobby lawmakers to
not support a tax they say would increase consumer prices for imported
goods.
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has remained a driving force behind the
border tax proposal, arguing that economic forces will keep the tax from
raising consumer prices.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jun/06/images/ads/current/humanesociety_sda022411.png)
The future of the tax remains shaky. President Donald Trump has refused
to endorse it and many Republicans in the House and Senate are opposed.
Furthermore, the effort to pass tax reform has stalled.
But Joshua Baca, a spokesman for the coalition opposing the tax, said
they will continue to fight against it. "The fight is not done. The
people who control the process are still very much in favor of the
border adjustment tax," Baca said.
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![](../images/060617pics/busine35.jpg)
A worker stands next to a newly built section of the U.S.-Mexico
border fence at Sunland Park, U.S. opposite the Mexican border city
of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico January 25, 2017. Picture taken from the
Mexico side of the U.S.-Mexico border. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jun/06/images/ads/current/brickey_lda_061314.png)
Emmett
Kelly owns a gun store in Conroe, Texas, in the congressional district of Ways
and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, an advocate for the tax. Kelly will
travel to Washington to argue tax would be devastating for gun retailers, noting
that he imports about 80 percent of his inventory.
"Everybody that I’ve talked to has shuttered when they heard what this border
adjustment tax is going to cost," he said.
Peter Sides, owner of the Robert M. Sides Family Music Centers which has five
locations in Pennsylvania and New York, said 95 percent of the instruments and
accessories sold in his store are imported. A price increase will hit his more
frequent customers hardest - families with children with a budding interest in
music.
"It all adds up – and it’s not just what happens to us, you’re asking a family
to take on the chin a 15-20 percent across-the-board expense increase for
anything that’s imported," Sides said.
(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by James Dalgleish)
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