Democrats Have Fallen Behind President Trump On Tariffs

President Trump’s America First Agenda Is The Key To Preserving America’s Industrial Base

BIDEN’S WEAKNESS ON FOREIGN TRADE HAS CRIPPLED U.S. DOMESTIC MANUFACTURING

• After spending much of his presidency fighting to undo President Trump’s trade policies, Biden’s failure to protect American manufacturers is coming back to haunt his administration.
  • Last week, Biden told the United Steelworkers that he is directing his U.S. Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, to consider imposing tariffs on Chinese steel imports, but it’s too little too late.
• Biden has spent most of his presidency walking back President Trump’s tariffs.
  • In October 2021, Biden suspended President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs on the European Union in exchange for tariff-rate quotas, leading to importation of cheap goods that threaten U.S. businesses.
  • In February 2022, Biden suspended steel tariffs on Japan.
    • Now, Japanese Nippon Steel is poised to take control of America’s second largest steel company, U.S. Steel.
  • In June 2022, Biden lifted steel and aluminum tariffs for the United Kingdom.
• Biden has failed to recover jobs in iron and steel mills and ferroalloy manufacturing.
  • Today, there are 5,900 fewer jobs in the American iron and steel industry than there were pre-pandemic.
  • In just the past year under Biden, the industry has lost 3,100 jobs.

PRESIDENT TRUMP IS ONCE AGAIN POISED TO PROTECT AND STRENGTHEN AMERICA’S STEEL AND ALUMINUM INDUSTRIES

• President Trump is prepared to “protect American labor” by imposing a three-part tariff framework against foreign nations who want to undercut American workers.
  • Upon taking office, President Trump says he will impose an “across-the-board tariff on most foreign-made goods.”
    • President Trump has proposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made cars imported from Mexico.
    • President Trump is seeking a Reciprocal Trade Act to impose equal tariffs on any country that attempts to penalize American goods.
    • President Trump has also said he will “revoke China's Most Favored Nation trade status,” and impose stiff penalties on China and other trade abusers.
  • As tariffs on foreign countries go up, taxes on American workers, and middle-class families will come down.
• Since day one, President Trump has fought to protect U.S. manufacturing and America’s hardworking middle class.
  • On the campaign trail in 2016, President Trump called out the dumping of foreign steel, and promised to use “every lawful presidential power” as part of his plan to turn around America’s failed trade policies.
  • In April 2017, President Trump followed through on that promise, ordering the Commerce Department to launch investigations into foreign steel and aluminum imports.
  • After the investigations concluded steel and aluminum imports threatened America’s national security and economic welfare, in March 2018 President Trump took swift action to impose Section 232 tariffs on imported aluminum and steel.
  • President Trump was the first president to take action on a Section 232 investigation since President Reagan in 1986.
  • In July 2019, President Trump issued an Executive Order mandating 95 percent of steel and iron used in federal infrastructure projects be American-made.

LABOR, BUSINESS, AND LOCAL LEADERS HAVE PRAISED PRESIDENT TRUMP’S TARIFFS

• Both labor and business leaders have praised President Trump’s efforts to bolster American steel and aluminum.
  • U.S. Steel President and CEO David Burritt praised President Trump’s policies: “It’s taken this courageous president with a lot of support from a lot of people to do the right thing, get us a level playing field so that we can have fairer trade and it’s really been a big plus for us.”
  • AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka also praised President Trump’s tariffs, calling them “a great first step toward addressing trade cheating.”
  • United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard applauded the 232 investigations and said President Trump’s tariffs would help reduce the harm that steel and aluminum imports had had on domestic producers.
  • After Minnesota’s iron ore mining industry bounced back during the Trump administration, Democratic Mayor Bob Vlaisavljevich of Eveleth, Minnesota said, “It’s really strange … a billionaire from New York in the one saving us.”

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ACTIONS BOOSTED U.S. STEEL AND ALUMINUM INDUSTRIES

• Steel and aluminum imports drastically decreased under President Trump, falling by a third from 2016 to 2020.
• Prior to the pandemic, 5,700 jobs were created in the iron, steel, and ferroalloy manufacturing sector during President Trump’s first three years in office.  
• The Section 232 tariffs sparked new investments in American steel and aluminum manufacturing totaling nearly $15 billion, resulting in an estimated 4,000 new jobs and the expansion or creation of more than 65 new domestic steel and aluminum projects.
  • U.S. Steel credited Trump’s trade policies for the construction of a new mill in Alabama.
  • Nucor Corp. announced plans to build a nearly $1.4 billion steel-plate mill, crediting Trump’s policies on tax cuts and tariffs.
• Steel workers saw higher wages under President Trump.
  • U.S. Steel workers saw “their biggest pay raise in years” in 2018, “a reflection of the American steel industry’s rebound” under Trump.
  • Members of the United Steelworkers union at Cleveland-Cliffs’ mining operations in Michigan’s upper peninsula and Minnesota’s iron range saw significant wage increases in 2018.

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S APPROACH TO STEEL BENEFITTED AMERICA’S SHIPYARDS

• President Trump’s commitment to the Jones Act and America’s shipyards resulted in the number of ships in the U.S. flagged fleet increasing nearly 10 percent from the Obama-Biden low of 169 ships to 184 ships by 2020, while tonnage increased to 7.3 million.
• Biden has undermined America’s shipbuilding industry by signing a Wavier of Buy America Requirements.
  • The waiver enables federal contractors to purchase and utilize foreign materials—including steel and iron—to build federally-funded transportation projects.
  • The waiver will benefit China, whose shipbuilding capacity is 232 times that of the United States’ largely due to anti-competitive practices, as more than a quarter of Small Shipyard Grant awards are for projects under $500,000.
  • American unions have warned that “the American commercial shipbuilding industry is a shell of its former self … The biggest obstacle to the industry’s recovery is the unfair trade practices of the world’s largest shipbuilding nation: China.”

MANY DEMOCRATS ARE NOW SUPPORTING PROTECTIONIST TARIFFS

• Joe Manchin (D-WV): “If we’re ever going to get this industry up and running and be self-sufficient in North America, then we have to make sure they can’t dump on us. Right now, we’re about ready to put our whole eggs in one basket, thinking EVs are the way to go, and we’re going to be absolutely so taken advantage of, to the point to where we’re going to be held hostage by the foreign supply chain that China has a grip on.”
  • Manchintold Katherine Tai, whose office can impose tariffs: “We depend on you all to crack hard and crack them down as tight as you can.”
• Gary Peters (D-MI): “Michigan workers can outcompete anyone on a level playing field, but the artificially low price of Chinese EVs could rig the game & jeopardize our national security. We're urging the Admin to raise tariffs — and protect American manufacturers & consumers.”
• Gary Peters (D-MI), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) : “Artificially low-priced Chinese EVs flooding the U.S. would cost thousands of American jobs and endanger the survival of the U.S. automotive industry as a whole. To bolster American manufacturing and protect the domestic EV transition, USTR must move immediately to maintain or increase Section 301 tariffs on Chinese EVs.”
• Haley Stevens (D-MI): “The more aggressive we can be, in my opinion, the better.”
• Debbie Dingell (D-MI): “I really, really, really, really, really am going to be intense about ensuring that automobiles made by China aren’t going to get any benefit from trade agreements that we’ve got … So, you know, producing in Mexico and coming in here.”
• Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), and Haley Stevens (D-MI) : “It is critical that tariffs on PRC automobiles not only be maintained but also increased to stem the expected surge in PRC imports… The trend of shifting production from the United States to the PRC underscores that the current tariff level on imported vehicles from the PRC is insufficient.”

BIDEN CAN NOT BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE THE FAILED OBAMA-BIDEN ERA TRADE POLICIES

• Biden’s failed approach to boosting imports and offshoring American manufacturing during the Obama-Biden administration didn’t work then and it won’t work now.
• While Joe Biden was vice president, China “dumped” cheap steel on the global market and violated trade rules, depressing prices and having a “devasting” impact on American steel producers.
• Under the Obama-Biden Administration, imports of foreign steel more than doubled.
  • Steel imports as a percentage of total U.S. consumption spiked from 23 percent in 2009 to 30 percent in 2016.
  • During Biden’s last year as vice president alone, aluminum imports as a percentage of U.S. consumption rose from 41 percent to 53 percent.
• As a result, 13,500 American iron and steelworker jobs were lost during the Obama-Biden administration.
  • One out of every seven U.S. iron and steelworker jobs were lost on Biden’s watch.