Collinson, who helps lead the international trade and government relations division at the lobbying firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, said she is fielding “dozens and dozens and dozens” of calls from anxious U.S. companies looking to protect themselves from Trump’s hardline tariff plans by finding loopholes and exemptions. “Absolutely everyone is calling,” Collinson told CNBC. “It is nonstop.
Now, with Trump set to retake the White House in a matter of weeks, tariff escalation is becoming a more likely reality. And in corporate America, the race is on to find the right lobbyists to help companies rub shoulders with the right people, to give them an advantage in securing tariff loopholes. “Firms are prepared,” SUNY Buffalo finance professor Veljko Fotak, one of the authors of the 2021 study, told CNBC. “The real winners of this process are going to be the lawyers and lobbyists.