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       We are still reporting. Do you have any information on how the excluded products were included in the tariff exemption list? You can contact Robert Faturechi of Signal at 213-271-7217.
       After President Donald Trump announced sweeping new tariffs earlier this month, the White House released a list of more than 1,000 products that would be exempt from the duties.
       One of the materials included in the list is polyethylene terephthalate, commonly known as PET resin, a thermoplastic used to make plastic bottles.
       It is unclear why the company was exempted from sanctions, and even industry officials do not know what caused the sanctions.
       But his selection is a victory for Coca-Cola bottler Reyes Holdings, one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S., owned by two brothers who have donated millions of dollars to Republican causes. The company recently hired a lobbying firm closely tied to the Trump administration to defend its tariffs, records show.
       It’s unclear whether the company’s lobbying played a role in the waiver request. Reyes Holdings and its lobbyists did not immediately respond to questions from ProPublica. The White House also declined to comment, but some industry advocates said the administration rejected the waiver request.
       The unexplained inclusion of resins on the list highlights how opaque the U.S. government’s tariff-setting process is. Key stakeholders remain in the dark about why certain products are subject to tariffs and others are not. There is no clear explanation for changes in tariff rates. Administration officials have provided conflicting information about the tariffs or simply refused to answer any questions.
       The lack of transparency in the process has raised concerns among trade experts that politically connected companies could gain tax exemptions behind closed doors.
       “It could be corruption, but it could also be incompetence,” a lobbyist working on tariff policy said of the inclusion of PET resin in the tariffs. “Frankly, it was so rushed that I don’t even know who went to the White House to discuss this list with everyone.”
       During the first Trump administration, there was a formal process for seeking tariff exemptions. Companies submitted hundreds of thousands of applications arguing that their products should be exempt from tariffs. The applications were made public so that the mechanics of the tariff-setting process could be more closely scrutinized. This transparency allowed academics to later analyze thousands of applications and determine that Republican political donors were more likely to receive exemptions.
       In Trump’s second term, at least for now, there is no formal process for requesting tariff relief. Industry executives and lobbyists work behind closed doors. The Wall Street Journal editorial board last week called the “opacity of the process” comparable to “a dream from the Washington swamp.”
       The executive order formally announcing Trump’s new tariffs would subject nearly all countries to a 10% base tariff, with exemptions broadly defined as products in the pharmaceutical, semiconductor, forestry, copper, critical minerals, and energy sectors. An accompanying list details the specific products that would be exempt.
       However, a review of the list by ProPublica found that many items did not fit into these broad categories or did not fit at all, while some items that did fit into these categories were not spared.
       For example, the White House exemption list covers most types of asbestos, which is not generally considered a critical mineral and does not appear to fall into any of the exemption categories. The carcinogenic mineral is generally considered unimportant to national security or the U.S. economy but is still used to make chlorine, but the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency banned imports of the material last year. The Trump administration has hinted that it may roll back some of the Biden-era restrictions.
       A spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, an industry group that previously opposed the ban because it could hurt the chlorine industry, said the group did not lobby for asbestos to be exempt from the tariffs and did not know why it was included. (The two major chlorine companies also did not indicate on their disclosure forms that they lobbied for the tariffs.)
       Other items on the list that are not exempt but are much less dangerous include coral, shells, and cuttlefish bones (parts of the cuttlefish that can be used as food supplements for pets).
       PET resin also doesn’t fall into any of the exemption categories. Experts say the government likely considers it an energy product because its ingredients are derived from petroleum. But other products that meet the same low standards aren’t included.
       ”We were as surprised as everyone else,” said Ralph Wasami, executive director of the PET Resin Association, a trade group for the PET industry. He said the resin does not fall into the exemption category unless packaging for those products is included.
       Records show that in the fourth quarter of last year, around the time Trump won the election, Coca-Cola bottler Reyes Holdings hired Ballard Partners to lobby for tariffs. In the first quarter of this year, around the time of Trump’s inauguration, records show that Ballard began lobbying the Commerce Department, which sets trade policy, for tariffs.
       The firm has become a go-to place for companies seeking to work with the Trump administration. It has lobbied for Trump’s own company, the Trump Organization, and its staff includes top administration officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The firm’s founder, Brian Ballard, is a prolific Trump fundraiser whom Politico has called “the most influential lobbyist in Trump’s Washington.” He is one of two lobbyists at the firm who lobbied for tariffs on Reyes Holdings, according to federal disclosure records.
       Chris and Jude Reyes, the billionaire brothers behind Reyes Holdings, also have close ties to politics. Campaign finance disclosure documents show that while they have donated to some Democratic candidates, most of their political contributions have gone to Republicans. After Trump’s primary victory, Chris Reyes was invited to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump in person.
       The PET resin exemption is not only a boon for Reyes Holdings, but also a boon for other companies that buy the resin to make bottles, as well as the beverage companies that use it. Earlier this year, Coca-Cola’s CEO said the company would switch to more plastic bottles in the face of new tariffs on aluminum. That plan could fail if the new tariffs also hit thermoplastics. Disclosure records show the company also lobbied Congress against tariffs this year, but the documents don’t detail which policies, and the company did not respond to questions from ProPublica. (Coca-Cola has tried to reach out to Trump, donating about $250,000 to his inauguration, and its CEO gave Trump a personalized bottle of Diet Coke, his favorite soda.)
       Another sector that has done relatively well in terms of relief from recent tariffs is agriculture, which covers a wide range of pesticides and fertilizer ingredients.
       The American Farm Bureau Federation, an agricultural lobbying group, recently posted an analysis on its website praising the partial exemptions and calling the turf and potash exemptions “a hard effort by agricultural organizations like the American Farm Bureau Federation” and “a testament to the effectiveness of the collective voice of farmers and ranchers.”
       There are many other imported goods that do not fall into any of the duty-exempt categories, but may fall into the duty-exempt category if broadly defined.
       One example is the artificial sweetener sucralose. Its inclusion would greatly benefit companies that use the product in food and beverages. But sucralose is also sometimes used in medications to make them more palatable. It is unclear whether the White House approved its inclusion because of the drug exclusion or for some other reason.
       The broad categories that received exemptions were primarily industries that the U.S. government was investigating for possible future tariffs under its authority to impose tariffs to protect national security.
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       ProPublica will focus on the areas that need the most attention during Donald Trump’s second term. Here are some of the issues our reporters will focus on — and how to get to them safely.
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