Senators Laud Trump's Confrontation on China Trade, but Express Anxiety About Economic Toll
The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee said he thinks China cheats in trade, but that consumers are going to bear the brunt of this confrontation. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, speaking to International Trade Today in a brief hallway interview May 14, said, "It is really harder and harder to divine this administration's strategy on trade. It's almost wash, rinse and repeat. They threaten something, the financial markets react badly, consumers express concern, then they pull back and start a process and you kind of get the feeling it may just be this way from now until Election Day 2020. I believe deeply in fighting trade cheating. I wrote the Enforce [and Protect] Act. With respect to say, China, I hope the Chinese cave."
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The chairman of the committee, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, also talked about the China tariffs May 14, during a conference call with reporters. "I'm disappointed about the news about additional tariffs, both out of Beijing and here in Washington. Both countries are going to be hurt." But, he said, farmers are still in President Donald Trump's corner on his trade war with China, and that even the best deal with China would not put soybeans and corn above the cost of production, because of overproduction. He said that if China returned to its buying patterns, soybeans might get to a break-even point, and corn would still be a money loser.
At the Capitol, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said he's concerned about the fact that no waiver application process has been announced for List 3 of Section 301 tariffs. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said, "I applaud the fact that the president's pushing back on China, that should've been done a long time ago. Tariffs are really the only tool that we have. How this strategy's going to work out ... time will tell."
Many Republicans hope there won't be much time to wait and see. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said, "We can't conclude these agreements soon enough from my standpoint. I fully recognize that tariffs are taxes, and it's by and large American businesses and consumers that are paying those." He said the trade war hurts China's economy, but "it hurts both of us. I don't think anybody wins a trade war, so the sooner we can end this trade war, the better."
The Democratic senator from Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin, said the escalation is having an immediate impact on her state, adding, "we need better trade deals not trade wars."
Trump seemed to respond to this kind of anxiety -- if not the idea that tariffs hurt American businesses -- on Twitter May 14. "When the time is right we will make a deal with China. My respect and friendship with President Xi is unlimited but, as I have told him many times before, this must be a great deal for the United States or it just doesn’t make any sense. We have to be allowed to make up some ......... of the tremendous ground we have lost to China on Trade since the ridiculous one sided formation of the WTO. It will all happen, and much faster than people think!"
Meanwhile, Chinese officials continued to push back on the accusations Trump has made that China backtracked on elements it had agreed to in negotiations. "Some people in the US seemed to have misjudged the current situation and underestimated China’s determination and will to defend its rights and interests. They were still muddying the waters and making offers that are far too demanding. It was only natural for China to oppose and resist that," a China Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a press conference May 14. He also said that it's been the U.S., not China, who has flip-flopped, noting the abandoned deal struck by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from May 2018. "In December last year, the two sides reached consensus on the value of China’s purchases from the US, but in the following talks the US wantonly rejected the agreement and asked for more. It is never China that backtracks on and breaks its commitments," he said.