Some US firms cry foul as Congress moves to drop tariffs

Naples, FLorida

MICHAEL Korchmar was hiring. His family-owned travel-goods company was planning to make a new product, an insulated food bag, and he had put out help-wanted notices for up to 30 workers to run the sewing machines in his small factory on Florida's Gulf Coast.

Those plans are now on hold. The reason: a bill quietly moving through Congress that would temporarily reduce or eliminate protective tariffs on 1,662 products, including the type of bag Korchmar had planned to produce. The bill would cut costs for rivals who make their bags in low-cost countries like China, he said, squeezing him out of the market before he had even entered it. "Given that these products will be able to come into the country duty free, it's not likely that there's any ability for us to compete," Mr Korchmar said in a recent interview at his factory, which currently employs about 20 people.