Congressman Scott Perry Leads GOP Effort to Save Pennsylvania’s Chocolate.
“Everyone loves chocolate. But confectioners of all sizes are under significant threat if we don’t revise the looming tariffs on our chocolate manufacturing industry,” said Congressman Scott Perry. “With the support of my colleagues, I contacted the Trump Administration to request a fair and balanced trade policy – one that won’t inadvertently hamstring thousands of hardworking Americans in the chocolate industry, especially here in Pennsylvania. I specifically asked the United States Trade Representative to exclude cocoa beans and its related products from tariffs, because cocoa cannot be grown in the U.S. - it must be imported. Cocoa trees grow exclusively within 20 degrees of the Equator, making America’s chocolate industry entirely dependent upon imports because there’s no alternatives or substitutes. These products fuel a thriving domestic chocolate manufacturing industry that employs tens of thousands of Americans, many of them in Pennsylvania – precisely the kinds of domestic manufacturing jobs the Trump Administration is working so diligently to protect.”