Washington, D.C. – Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) president Dennis Slater issued the following statement after the Trump administration announced it would scale back U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and avoid tariffs originally scheduled for December 15 to take effect.

“The announcement to scale back tariffs by the Trump administration is a good step in the right direction,” said Dennis Slater, president of AEM. “These tariffs have hurt equipment manufacturers, raised the costs of doing business and made it a lot harder for our industry to create more good-paying American jobs. The resulting trade war with China has also significantly hurt U.S. farmers and rural communities. With the 2020 election around the corner and with these tariffs increasingly wearing on the minds of American voters, we encourage the administration to continue negotiating with the Chinese government for the removal of all the remaining tariffs still in place.”