Free Republic

The Chamber of Commerce has been a longtime opponent of Trump’s seeking to hold China accountable on trade, continuing their support for free trade at all costs. Throughout 2018 and 2019, Chamber of Commerce executives campaigned against the administration’s popular tariffs on Chinese imports. Most prominently, the Chamber of Commerce was influential — along with GOP establishment lawmakers — in helping to tank a plan that would have allowed Trump to readily impose reciprocal tariffs on foreign countries to level the trade playing field. The plan, specifically, was geared towards stopping China’s economic rise.