Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce has announced a new, six-figure ad campaign urging Washington lawmakers to embrace trade and reject tariffs for the prosperity for all Americans. The TV and radio ads, airing in the Washington, DC, market and on national broadcast respectively, began airing in late June.

Freedom Partners stand for the principles that individuals, businesses, and countries should be free to engage in the voluntary exchange of goods and services, which improves lives by growing the economy, increasing pay checks, and creating new and better jobs. Individuals and businesses in a competitive market, not government bureaucrats or politicians, should guide trade decisions.

Punitive measures such as tariffs and quotas harm most consumers, workers, and businesses and should be eliminated. Subsidies and other forms of government supports for powerful and politically connected businesses and industries do not create value. They punish consumers, insulate businesses from market competition, and should be eliminated.

Trade disputes should be resolved through existing international trade agreements and organizations. While national security interests may be a consideration in trade policy, they should be used to restrict trade only when there is truly a narrow national security interest at stake, not as a work around to impose tariffs.

The campaign is “calling on Congress to exert oversight by requiring House and Senate votes on any new tariffs,” reported the Associated Press. “They want to lift recent steel and aluminum tariffs as well as those being proposed on goods from China.”

The Washington Times noted that the campaign “will emphasize that tariffs harm economic growth. The groups are also urging lawmakers to support the Global Trade Accountability Act, sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, and Rep. Warren Davidson, Ohio Republican, that would give Congress the authority to review and approve tariffs.”