Three U.S. House members are pressing President Donald Trump to ease tariff rules for a European company that plans to build a $1 billion copper cable plant to supply Texas’ data center boom.
U.S. Reps. Wesley Hunt, Michael McCaul and Randy Weber, all Republicans, are asking Trump’s trade counselor Peter Navarro to allow a subsidiary of the Polish firm Tele-Fonika Kable to invest what it currently spends on tariffs exporting copper cable to the United States on building the plant in Waller, outside of Houston.
“Rather than simply sending those funds to the Treasury, this approach would ensure that tariff revenue is reinvested directly into new American manufacturing capacity,” they wrote in a letter in May. “This type of investment is exactly the outcome your trade policies are intended to encourage: global manufacturers choosing to build factories in the United States, hire American workers, and strengthen domestic supply chains for critical industrial materials.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Representatives of Tele-Fonika have been meeting with the Trump administration to try and get approval on the tariff relief proposal but so far have not gotten an answer, said Johnston Dietz, operations manager at JDR Cable Systems, a subsidiary of the Polish company.
He said the company had begun working on building the Texas plant in 2022, before Trump instituted his tariffs on foreign imports last year.
“The addition of these tariffs threatened the financial validity of the investment. It makes it difficult to secure the financing,” he said. “We’re not looking for something to last years on end, just support through the end of the financial investment.”
Copper cables have come under high demand amid the data center boom and the push to build out the electricity grid that powers them. Other traditional industries like oil and gas drillers in Texas also depend on the cables.
The Waller plant would eventually employ 700 people, with plans to begin operations in three years, Dietz said.
When Trump instituted his global tariff regime last year, he sold it as both a means to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States but also a windfall for the federal government.
“I always say tariffs is the most beautiful word to me in the dictionary,” he said ahead of his inauguration last year. “Because tariffs are going to make us rich as hell. It’s going to bring our country’s businesses back that left us.”
In their letter, the three House members said U.S. commerce and trade officials had “engaged constructively with the company,” but needed “a signal from the White House before moving forward to finalize such an arrangement.”
“Providing that direction would allow this investment to proceed and would demonstrate how your tariff policies are successfully driving new manufacturing, stronger supply chains, and high-quality jobs in the United States,” they wrote.