Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), recently participated in a roundtable discussion in Stoughton, Wis., addressing what the committee sees as an imminent threat to American manufacturing from the CCP, the committee said in a press release.
"We have something so precious in this country which the CCP hates: freedom," Krishnamoorthi said in the roundtable. "It’s so bad right now—the squelching of freedoms by the Chinese Communist Party—that their economy is in a tailspin as we speak."
Krishnamoorthi was joined by fellow members of the Select Committee on the CCP, including Representatives Mike Gallagher and Darin LaHood, along with several CEOs from U.S. manufacturing businesses. Among the attendees were Bob Wahlin, CEO of Stoughton Trailers; Steve Kramer, President of United Steelworkers Local 9777; and Mamun Rashid, CEO of Auxin Solar, the committee press release said. The meeting was held at the Stoughton Trailers factory.
Stoughton Trailers manufactures truck chassis, the framework for truck trailers, a product that is facing unfair competition from illegally subsidized production by Chinese companies, the release said.
Stoughton has been in business since 1961 and earned the ISO 9001:2015 Certification for Intermodal Chassis Production in Evansville last year, the company's website says.
"There's a common concern among Democrats and Republicans that unfortunately, the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in economic aggression to try to undercut American competitiveness, whether it's dumping goods, or stealing intellectual property or cyber hacking," Krishnamoorthi said, according to WKOW.
In 2021, Stoughton and four other chassis manufacturers collaborated with the Coalition of American Chassis Manufacturers and won a victory at the U.S. International Trade Commission over a CCP-owned competitor that was "selling the entire chassis to U.S. companies for less than the cost of the steel in the frame alone," a Stoughton press release said at the time.
"It's an inspiring story of Wisconsin and American grit in the face of CCP's economic progression," Gallagher said about the Stoughton case. "We need a coherent strategy in terms of trade incentives, regulatory policy that helps companies like Stoughton survive against this economic progression we're seeing," WKOW reported.
