The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will soon make a final determination in the antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) case concerning Chinese low-speed vehicle imports. Club Car leaders and other representatives of the coalition representing the United States’ leading manufacturers of golf and personal transportation vehicles (PTVs) recently traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with Congressional leaders and seek support.
The above picture on Capitol Hill features Congressman Rick Allen (GA-12), who met with leaders from Club Car and EZ-GO in Washington, D.C., to address the impact of illegally dumped vehicles and discuss potential policy solutions.
The meetings come at a critical time in the trade case, with the ITC’s final decision on tariffs expected within a couple of weeks. The AD/CVD petition, filed by domestic manufacturers in 2024, has seen early success as the Department of Commerce investigation found that Chinese exporters flooded the U.S. market with unfairly priced and heavily subsidized vehicles—threatening American manufacturing jobs and the industry. As a result, preliminary tariffs have been applied ranging from 200-500% on illegally imported carts.
“Despite recent misleading claims, Club Car vehicles are not merely assembled—they are built in Georgia and support a deep network of American suppliers, engineers, and manufacturing workers,” said Mark Wagner, President and CEO of Club Car.
Even before Donald Trump took office and ramped up tariffs against imports, Club Car had launched a successful campaign last year against Chinese imports.
“Those golf carts from China disrupted our business. Their products were not up to our standards. American-made, American-designed, American-tested, American-proven; it’s the Club Car difference to provide reliability, quality, and safety. You know, when vehicles are coming from overseas, it’s not necessarily that they’re meeting any of those three things,” Wagner stated in an interview with ABD in March regarding his upcoming retirement on August 1.
Club Car, based in Augusta, Georgia, has been an anchor of American manufacturing for over six decades. At the Augusta facility, Club Car has a large-scale operations facility, transportation and logistics, engineering, design, and automotive style testing facilities, customer service, custom solutions, and executive leadership. The more than 900 employees that directly support the Georgia-based global headquarters and main manufacturing facility are at the core of the Club Car values and commitment to build quality and safety that gives customers peace of mind and follow federal guidelines for low-speed vehicles.
“Illegally dumped imports threaten our business and the broader network of American suppliers and skilled workers who contribute to our production process,” said Mark Wagner, President of Club Car. “We are committed to supporting domestic industry and jobs and went to Washington to ask our elected officials to support efforts that create a level playing field for American manufacturers who play by the rules.”
The Capitol Hill discussions focused on building bipartisan momentum behind strong enforcement of U.S. trade laws, support for enforcement of tariff rulings at the border, and securing fair competition for American manufacturers as the ITC concludes its investigation.
Editor’s Note:
Mitzi Oxford is a veteran broadcaster and features writer who also worked at the same television station in Columbus, Georgia as Augusta’s Brad Means! If you have a South Carolina story idea for Mitzi, please email her at mitzioxfordcreative@gmail.com.
