During Friday’s Weekly Address, President Trump discussed trade policy and vowed that the US won’t “tolerate unfair and non-reciprocal trading practices” and that the administration “will use all available authorities to protect our great farmers.”
Transcript as Follows
As a candidate for President, I promised that my Administration would fight every day for American workers.
Years of unfair trade have hammered American families and plundered American wealth. It’s been absolutely terrible for our country. We turned a blind eye while other nations targeted our industries and ransacked our factories. They took advantage of our country. They took advantage of our people. Over the last two decades, the United States racked up $12.5 trillion dollar trade deficits in goods, and watched nearly one-third of our manufacturing jobs disappear or go to other countries. We financed the rise of other countries at the expense of our own middle class people.
Yet our leaders in Washington did absolutely nothing. They allowed other countries to cheat, to break the rules, and to steal our jobs with impunity.
Politicians responded to economic aggression with economic surrender. Not anymore – it’s not going to happen. We’re standing up for our families, our factory workers, and our way of life. My administration hears your voice – and has your back.
After a thorough investigation, my administration documented China’s unfair trade practices – including forced technology transfers. As a result of this investigation, we’re taking concrete actions to stop this abuse, including proposing tariffs on select imports designed to save our industries for the future. We have no other choice. We’ll get along with China – they’ll be friends of ours, but they just can’t take advantage of us any longer.
We will have a great relationship with China – but it will be a fair relationship, not like it was. We will also no longer tolerate unfair and non-reciprocal trading practices – not only with China, but with anyone. And my administration will use all available authorities to protect our great farmers. We love our farmers, we’re going to take care of our farmers.
We want fair and reciprocal trade – where countries open their markets in equal measure, and all sides play by the rules. And that hasn’t been happening in the past. What we won’t tolerate are one-sided deals where we open our markets while other countries close theirs.
Only by standing up for ourselves can we end the abuse, restore our prosperity, and reclaim our economic independence.
We’re going to make America wealthy again, not only great again.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett