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Caught Our Eye

Lobbyists still benefiting from Trump tariffs

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on April 29, 2019

Trade and tariff work continues to mean big business for Washington lobbying firms.

In the first quarter of 2019, at least 1,944 federal lobbying contracts disclosed work on trade and/or tariff issues. That represents an 18 percent increase over the 1,646 contracts mentioning those issues during the same period in 2018 and a whopping 50 percent increase over those filed in the first quarter of 2017 (1,297).

Lobbying on trade and tariff issues has soared in the time since President Trump announced that the U.S. would impose tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union. After several consecutive quarters of growth, trade and tariff lobbying has finally begun to level off, slightly down from an all-time high of 1,977 contracts in 2018 Q4.