Former President Donald Trump declared on Monday “I’m a big supporter of tariffs,” suggesting he might reimpose tariffs on foreign goods if he wins re-election.
In an interview with CNBC, Trump cited the economic and political benefits of targeting foreign goods entering the United States.
“When you’re being taken advantage of by other countries, I completely believe in them economically,” the Republican candidate said of tariffs in a “Squawk Box” interview. “Beyond the economics, it empowers you to deal with other countries. power.”
The comments come as Trump is neck-and-neck with President Joe Biden in polls. With Trump’s string of victories in Republican primaries and the withdrawal of all his opponents, he looks set to be the party’s nominee in a race in which the economy will play a major role.
Trump imposed various tariffs on China, Mexico, the European Union and other countries during his administration from 2017-21. He specifically imposed a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum.
In the case of China, many tariffs remain in effect under the Biden administration.
“China has taken advantage of us in steel. They are destroying our entire steel industry, which has been underperforming for the last 25 years anyway… because it has been eaten alive by foreign competition,” Te Trump said. “I put a 50 percent tax on steel coming into China. Everybody in the steel industry, when they saw me, they started crying. They would hug me.”
Trump singled out the Chinese auto industry as a future target.
“China is our boss now. They are the boss of the United States, almost like we are a subsidiary of China,” he said.
Data from MarkLines shows that China’s automobile production will be about 30 million units in 2023, an annual increase of about 50% in January.A group of Democratic senators from auto-producing states recently urged Biden to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles entering the United States
Trump says he will seek tariffs to try to get China to build more cars in the U.S.
“The whole topic of tariffs is very simple. Number one, it’s very good for us economically, it brings our companies back because if you put tariffs on China, they’re going to build…their auto plants here, Then they’ll come back. “We’ll hire our people,” he said. “We don’t want to get cars from China. We want to get cars that China makes in the United States using our workers.”
Critics charge that tariffs are counterproductive because they make imported goods more expensive. However, inflation has been subdued during the Trump administration, with the consumer price index rising by less than 8% in total over four years, compared with about 18% under the Biden administration.
