Democratic Rivals Denounce Trump Tariffs, but Agree on Holding China ‘Accountable’
Most of the Democratic contenders who weighed in with a China opinion during Thursday’s presidential debate said President Donald Trump’s Section 301 tariffs policy harm American families, but backed the administration’s goals of curbing China’s alleged IP theft and forced technology transfer. The U.S. either needs to make trade policy, “or China’s going to make the rules of the road,” said Former Vice President Joe Biden, typifying the others.
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The U.S. is “25 percent of the world’s economy,” said Biden. “We need another 25 percent to join us” in curbing China’s allegedly unfair trade behavior, he said. The problem with China isn’t the U.S. “trade deficit,” it’s that “they’re stealing our intellectual property,” and violating World Trade Organization antidumping rules, said Biden. “If we don’t set the rules, we in fact are going to find ourselves with China setting the rules.” The White House and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn't reply to emails seeking comment.
Trump “obviously hasn’t a clue” about how to deal with China, said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. The president thinks “trade policy is a tweet at 3 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “What we have got to do is develop a trade policy that represents workers, represents farmers in the Midwest and elsewhere who are losing billions right because of Trump’s policy.”
The president “reduced the entire China challenge into a question of tariffs, when what we know is that the tariffs are coming down on us more than anybody else,” said South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Trump also lacks “a bigger strategy” on trade, he said.
Trump put ordinary Americans “in the middle of this trade war,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. “He is treating our farmers and our workers like poker chips in one of his bankrupt casinos. If we are not careful, he is going to bankrupt this country.” The trade war already has cost the U.S. 300,000 jobs, she said. The figure was from a Moody’s Analytics estimate last week that the year-old trade friction with the Chinese reduced U.S. employment by 300,000 jobs, compared with likely employment if the trade war hadn’t taken place.
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro agrees “this erratic, haphazard trade war is hurting American families.” If elected, Castro would “immediately begin to negotiate with China to ratchet down that trade war,” he said. “We have leverage there.”
The U.S. and China have “a complicated relationship,” said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. “We have to hold China accountable. They steal our products, including our intellectual property. They dump substandard products into our economy.” The U.S. also needs to “to partner with China on climate, and the crisis that that presents,” she said. “We need to partner with China on the issue of North Korea.”