This week, two very different events will put the U.S.-China relationship in the spotlight.
President Donald Trump is preparing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, D.C. as the two countries continue negotiations over trade and other economic issues. At the same time, the world’s best golfers are gathering outside Chicago, IL for the Presidents Cup, where American and international players will compete at Medinah Country Club.
There is a connection between those events that deserves more attention: American manufacturing.
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The golfers at Medinah — and potentially President Trump himself, who has accepted the role of honorary chairman and plans to attend — will be utilizing golf carts built by Club Car at their manufacturing headquarters in Augusta, Georgia.
It is a fitting reminder of the longstanding relationship between the great game of golf and the American manufacturers that support it. But it is becoming increasingly difficult for American companies to build and compete when foreign governments distort the market. And what is happening in the golf-cart industry is part of a much larger story playing out across the country.
American manufacturers employ millions of people, support communities and contend every day in a global marketplace. They should be able to outcompete based on the quality, innovation and value of what they produce — not against foreign governments willing to subsidize competitors and distort prices.
That is precisely what is happening in the low-speed personal transportation vehicle industry (LSPTV), or what most Americans simply know as golf carts.
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In 2023, more than $522 million worth of these vehicles were imported into the United States from China—more than double the amount imported in 2021. American manufacturers raised concerns that Chinese producers were benefiting from government subsidies and selling products in the United States at unfairly low prices.
The Department of Commerce investigated and found evidence supporting those concerns, determining that Chinese producers had benefited from countervailable subsidies and that Chinese LSPTVs were being sold in the United States at less than fair value.
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Those findings are not merely numbers in a federal register. They have consequences on American factory floors.
The domestic industry has experienced reduced shifts, reductions in workforce, declining production and declining profitability. That means fewer opportunities for American workers and less investment in the communities that depend on manufacturing.
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I have seen the importance of this industry firsthand through my work representing Georgia’s 12th Congressional District, home to Club Car and E-Z-GO. But this issue extends far beyond Georgia. The same basic question applies to manufacturers across America: Can we compete based on the quality of what we build, or will government-backed foreign competitors be allowed to tilt the scales in their favor?
On a level playing field, American companies like Club Car and E-Z-GO can out-innovate and out-compete anyone in the world.
That is why Congress and the administration must enforce our trade laws.
The United States has already taken action. Commerce established antidumping and countervailing-duty remedies against unfairly traded Chinese LSPTV imports, addressing a problem that American manufacturers had been documenting for years.
But trade enforcement only works if it is actually enforced.
Chinese producers have found ways around American trade remedies, including by changing supply chains, relabeling products or routing goods through third countries. I have joined colleagues in pressing the Commerce Department to investigate potential circumvention and ensure that trade remedies protect the American workers they were designed to protect.
This is not about preventing legitimate competition. It is about ensuring competition is legitimate in the first place.
That distinction matters as President Trump prepares to sit down with President Xi.
The United States can engage China diplomatically while being clear about what we expect economically. American businesses should have access to foreign markets, and foreign businesses should have access to ours — but the rules must be applied fairly. A product should not gain an artificial advantage because a foreign government is willing to subsidize its production and then flood another country’s market.
We have learned this lesson in steel, solar panels, automobiles and other industries. Once domestic manufacturing capacity disappears, rebuilding it is extraordinarily difficult.
The Presidents Cup offers a useful reminder of what American manufacturing can accomplish. As the tournament brings together the best golfers from the United States and around the world, American golf-car technology developed in places like Augusta will help support one of golf’s biggest international stages.
That is what fair competition should look like: American workers building products that can compete anywhere in the world.
As President Xi visits Washington, that principle should be part of the conversation.
And as the Presidents Cup showcases the best golfers in the world, it is worth remembering the American workers and manufacturers supporting the tournament behind the scenes.
