The U.S. has recently had tariffs on the import of steel under two administrations by opposing political parties. I would assume, but don't know, that a 25% difference in the cost of raw materials should have a near-total effect on the viability of any company making steel parts. I would also assume that in this era a company's political orientation, if any, is almost always reflected in postings to Twitter or Facebook, and with some delay by reporting of campaign contributions. Therefore -- has there been any analysis of whether a company's political postings correlated with their likelihood of prevailing in a request for tariff exclusions or exemptions? (It would be of further interest to know if the political positioning led or lagged the regulatory response, and whether a difference in the direction or magnitude of the correlation was seen between administrations)
Per request, some background on tariff exclusions, which are per-product exceptions to the tariffs (2200 in 2020, 549 in 2021, 352 in 2022, and tariff exemptions which are per-company applications. To quote that article from February 2020, "the list that only has a 3% approval rate so far ... You’re not given a reason why they were rejected ... the same exemptions he was granted one year, he was denied the next." I didn't find mention of how many exemptions are valid currently - few news outlets distinguish between exclusions and exemptions, making keyword searches difficult.
