Public companies whose executives donated to Republican candidates had a higher chance of winning exclusions from President-elect Donald Trump's first-term tariffs on China, while those that gave to Democrats saw their odds fall, according to a study into thousands of applications for relief.

Companies filed more than 50,000 applications for exemptions after Trump began announcing duties on imports from China in 2018 with the process requiring them to file separate requests for each individual product for review by officials at the Office of the US Trade Representative.