For Immediate Release
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org
Coalition Opposes Granting Government Control Over Aluminum Reference Prices
(Washington, D.C., Tuesday, October 22, 2019) Led by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CF&P), signers from 17 free market organizations today released a coalition letter urging Congress to oppose The Aluminum Pricing Examination (APEX) Act. The APEX Act would grant the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission expansive authority over the setting of references prices in the aluminum market, allowing political pressure potentially to distort the market by manipulating price signals.
The coalition letter reads, in part:
“By granting the government authority to arbitrarily alter market signals, supporters of the APEX Act—such as certain beer manufacturers with a history of working with politicians to distort the free market—are openly seeking to artificially deflate the price of aluminum. Such an outrageously crony abuse of government is unethical, and history shows that it will only worsen matters by further distorting the market and creating or exacerbating shortages. Domestic producers, faced with extensive government regulations and thinner profit margins, would find it increasingly difficult to survive and further erode domestic supply, a boon for foreign producers.”
CF&P President Andrew F. Quinlan said, “This effort is a clear cut case of shooting the messenger based on debunked claims of bias. Privately conducted independent assessments help commodity markets function efficiently. They are held accountable by their customers, who expect accurate, unbiased analysis of the prices agreed to by real buyers and sellers. Inserting the special-interest driven preferences of politicians into the reporting of reference prices would be a funny way of freeing the market from alleged manipulation.”
Representatives from the following 17 organizations joined the letter: Center for Freedom and Prosperity, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, Less Government, American Consumer Institute, Tea Party Nation, Campaign for Liberty, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, National Black Chamber of Commerce, American Encore, Market Institute, Citizen Outreach, Institute for Liberty, Institute for Policy Innovation, Frontiers of Freedom, National Tax Limitation Committee, and 60 Plus Association.
The full letter is available here.
For additional comments:
Andrew Quinlan can be reached at 202-285-0244, andy@freedomandprosperity.org
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Image credit: Library of Congress | Public Domain.
