Tariffs, recycling policies on plastics industry's DC fly-in agenda

Washington — Amid major uncertainty about President Donald Trump's tariffs and the potential for a trade war, more than 140 plastics executives descended on Washington April 9 for their annual lobbying fly-in to push for "a more targeted approach" they say will be less disruptive to business.

Midway through the executives' day walking the halls of Capitol Hill, however, Trump announced he was suspending for 90 days many of the wide-ranging tariffs he had announced a week earlier.

Trump said he was raising tariffs on Chinese exports to 125 percent, while pausing for 90 days some of the tariffs he had announced April 2.

However, he also seemed to suggest in a social media post that 10 percent tariffs would remain broadly on many nations.

The joint lobbying day from the Plastics Industry Association and the American Chemistry Council also included advocating for favorable federal policy for chemical recycling and for tax policy allowing faster depreciation of capital equipment.

Ahead of the fly-in, industry officials said they hoped to talk about environmental and tax policy, but also acknowledged that tariffs were taking up the bandwidth on Capitol Hill.

One of Trump's top trade advisers, for example, faced two days of Congressional hearings and skeptical questioning from lawmakers April 8-9.

"Right now, there's sort of an immediate need to talk about tariffs," said Matt Seaholm, president and CEO of the plastics association, in an April 8 interview. "There are other things: the deregulation agenda, additional taxation questions. We want our members to talk about their priorities as well."

Beyond policy points, he said companies need to take advantage of time with their members of Congress or staff to talk about what their company does or the people that work there, he said.

"What I always stress is tell your story because the stories get remembered," Seaholm said. "They're meeting with their representatives, and they should feel free to talk about how decisions in Washington, D.C., impact them."

Still, trade policy talk was taking center stage.

After Trump unveiled detailed tariffs on imports from around the world April 2, the plastics association officials argued for a "more targeted" approach. Seaholm in March said tariffs risk putting business investment "on hold" as they raise costs for companies and stress the economy.

Trump administration officials have argued their tariffs will boost domestic manufacturing in the long-run and reduce U.S. manufacturing trade deficits, although they're getting more pushback on Capitol Hill.

A bipartisan group of seven Republican and seven Democratic senators introduced legislation April 4 that would limit the administration's authority, mandating that new tariffs expire after 60 days unless Congress approves them.

Seaholm said supporting that bill was not in the fly-in talking points but said that in general, companies are worried about increasing costs from tariffs on the machinery and materials they buy, and they want to be able to argue for exclusions.

"Typically, you do end up with an exclusion process when talking about tariffs," he said. "There hasn't been an opportunity to make the case of why perhaps the tariff makes sense on this type of product but not this type of machine, maybe this material but maybe not this material. That's where the one-sized fits all approach … is not the right approach."

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, however, told an April 8 Senate hearing that he did not anticipate more exclusions in the near term.

As the plastics executives were walking the halls of Congress, the potential trade war showed signs of escalating as both China and the European Union April 9 announced retaliatory measures.

China said it was raising tariffs on U.S. goods to 84 percent, from 34 percent, in response to U.S. tariffs of 104 percent taking effect, while the European Union said it would impose tariffs of 10-25 percent on $24 billion worth of U.S. exports starting April 15.

Both announcements came before Trump's pause.

Echoing the U.S. industry groups, a European plastics association in late March warned against EU tariffs on U.S. plastic resin in late March, saying they "risk triggering a chain reaction of price hikes, reduced competitiveness, and job losses across the EU."

That was all happening as Greer told the Senate April 8 that nearly 50 countries have approached the Trump administration to negotiate new trade arrangements, which he said shows that the administration's strategy is "bearing fruit."

CNBC reported that Trump credited his pause to countries coming to negotiating table.

Seaholm also pointed to the negotiations in the April 8 interview and said Trump administration policies could change.

"In the last 24 hours, it's become pretty clear that there are going to be negotiations with countries, and if there are negotiations, then you have to see, where do these negotiations end," he said. "I don't think these sets of policies are written in stone."

Seaholm said companies in the association could be split on tariff impacts.

"We have members who are 100 percent domestic and are probably seeing some benefits to some of these tariffs," he said, as well as others who are multinational companies or domestic firms who depend heavily on international supply chains.

Seaholm said the fly-in this year brought in a record number of executives to Washington, more than 140. He didn't attribute that to any specific issue but said the association has been working to boost its advocacy.

The fly-in's official talking points also included advocating for federal policies for chemical recycling.

Ross Eisenberg, vice president of the American Chemistry Council's plastics division, said Republican control of Congress and the White House creates an opportunity for policy clarity.

"EPA has a really unique opportunity over these next few years to set it straight and figure out how to regulate it," Eisenberg said. "We're in a unique time period where we have full alignment across Congress and EPA, and so this is one of those times where you can get durable change, at least hopefully, on this issue."

He said policy specifics include having the government regulate chemical recycling as manufacturing under the Clean Air Act, rather than as solid waste management, and to have products made from it formally classified as recycled content.

Eisenberg said the industry supports the reintroduction of a 2024 bill, the Accelerating a Circular Economy for Plastics and Recycling Innovation Act, that included chemical recycling regulatory language the industry liked.

The bill would also set up a national mandate for 30 percent recycled content in plastic packaging, by 2030.

The Republican cosponsor, Indiana Rep. Larry Bucshon, retired from Congress at the end of 2024, requiring backers to find a new cosponsor.

"That fact that it was bipartisan legislation, and frankly the only bipartisan comprehensive bill out there on recycling, was a big deal," Eisenberg said, in an interview on the sidelines of the fly-in.

He said fly-in talking points also included asking Congress to urge the Trump Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw 18 regulations proposed by the Biden EPA, called Significant New Use Rules, because they chilled investment in chemical recycling.

"The day the SNUR was proposed we started hearing from members that it was affecting their ability to secure funding and customers," Eisenberg said. "Customers were saying, 'Well, hey, we'll just chill out a little bit and wait and see what happens.' "

He said he understands the EPA goal of using the SNURs to learn about what is in pyrolysis oil, but said the agency should use other regulations.

"There's plenty of ways to get there," he said. "You don't need a SNUR to do it, because the SNUR really did affect the market negatively."

Eisenberg said better regulatory signals on chemical recycling, or advanced recycling as the industry called it in talking points for the fly-in, would speed development of the market.

"The advanced recycling industry is on the verge, I think, of large-scale commercialization," he said. "What we saw over the last few years was the market chilled a little bit because of very, very unclear regulatory signals. The market saw that and said, well, we don't know what to do because we don't know how this is going to be regulated."

He said the industry was also talking about the need for more investment in recycling infrastructure and "well-crafted" extended producer responsibility programs (EPR), even if EPR will not happen in the current Congress.

He said conversations about EPR "will remind people that we're serious … because someday we think we will have that real opportunity."