Washington, D.C. — TechNet, the national, bipartisan network of innovation economy CEOs and senior executives, is urging the Trump Administration not to move forward with proposed tariffs on several technology products and components essential to the construction and operation of data centers. In its latest rulemaking, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has proposed implementing a 25 percent tariff on Chinese imports worth approximately $200 billion annually.
“Data centers are one of the many important ways technology companies are creating jobs and expanding opportunity in communities across the country,” wrote TechNet President and CEO Linda Moore in official comments submitted to USTR. “Data centers are not only critical to tech firms and workers, they are utilized by manufacturers, farmers, and businesses across every sector to store and manage the data they need to run their operations more effectively.
“Tariffs on essential data center components, such as servers and transmission devices, threaten to stall this engine of economic growth by disrupting supply chains, increasing costs through de facto taxes, and injecting uncertainty into business operations and local economies that host data centers,” Moore added.
The full text of TechNet’s letter is below and a PDF is available here.