I want to welcome our witnesses on behalf of the Committee Democrats. We look forward to hearing from you all directly about the impacts of this Administration’s tariffs on your communities.
We have been asking this committee to hold more regular subcommittee hearings, so our meeting today is welcome.
But I have to say we are deeply disappointed that the Committee Republicans did not call an Administration witness to this hearing to explain President Trump’s erratic trade actions.
Last week Committee Democrats sent Chairman Brady a letter requesting a full Ways and Means Committee hearing with an Administration witness so we could demand answers for the American public about this Administration’s trade policies, and whether or not they are working. That request stands.
Yet here we are having a subcommittee hearing with no Administration witnesses.
I am all for fact finding, but calling on Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to testify today could shed some important light on this administration’s chaotic tariff strategy with respect to our farmers.
And the subcommittee is scheduled for a hearing on 232 steel and aluminum exclusion process next week. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross should be here listening to our witnesses as well and be held accountable for this Administration’s irrational actions. For too long, free trade has benefited some industries and corporations over others, often at the expense of American workers -- particularly in manufacturing. Trade enforcement is critical to defending the interests of those who have been left behind by globalization and free trade. Tariffs are one tool that can be effective in enforcing fairer trade policies and bringing cheating actors like China to the table. Trade with China, whose unfair trade props up its own industries at our expense, has eliminated or displaced millions of U.S. jobs and contributed to a reduction in American wages over the last 20 years.
Unfair trade practices by China are not the only culprit behind job displacement and lower wages. Just this week a report came out that wages have lagged as corporate profits soar, aided and abetted by the recent GOP tax cuts. The fight for higher wages has been hampered by the decades-long Republican campaign to undermine the power of labor.
Trump is rolling back regulations that protect workers’ safety and benefits, fair wages and overtime pay, and nominating anti-worker, pro-corporate Supreme Court justices. His tax bill will encourage more, not less, outsourcing. And his and this Republican Congress’s policies will make healthcare more expensive and less accessible for working families.
Addressing those workers hurt by trade will not be enough to correct this imbalance or all-out assault on workers by years of Republican policies that have hung them out to dry.
But we need to address the worldwide problem of global steel and aluminum overcapacity caused most notably by China. A lasting solution would be to work with our allies to confront China, but instead this Administration has decided to go it alone and antagonize allies instead.
The Section 301 tariffs on “Made in China 2025" goods have a different intention: to create leverage to persuade China to change its unfair and anticompetitive industrial policies. These are laudable goals and action is necessary.
Tariffs can be a means to an end - but what is that end? This Administration has yet to lay out a clear strategy on China or a measurable outcome they wish to see from these tariffs. Tariffs should be temporary, targeted, and strategic. They should be a means, not an end. They should be a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. I fear with this President they are being used as the latter, and while some in the domestic steel industry might be seeing a benefit today, tomorrow’s economic outlook is uncertain for all of us.
