During an interview with ABC News on Thursday, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) declared that “unilateral tariffs that Trump is talking about are going to be taxes on American consumers.” But refused to say if President Joe Biden was wrong to keep tariffs the first Trump administration put in place.
Host Diane Macedo asked, “Then-President Trump put tariffs on China in 2018. President Biden has had four years to rescind those and he hasn’t. So, do you support those tariffs and how are what Trump’s proposing now any different?”
DelBene responded, “Well, let’s be clear, these unilateral tariffs that Trump is talking about are going to be taxes on American consumers. They’re going to affect our small businesses and a lot of our exporters, which are small businesses. There’s going to be retaliation from other countries that will not only continue to drive up costs for folks right here at home, but will make it harder and harder for American businesses to do [business] overseas. So, there are big consequences to putting in place these policies. And Congress, again, has an important role to play, and needs to be consulted and be part of this. But he’s looking at raising prices on consumers, and in a time when we know that affordability and costs are one of the most important issues to Americans across the country, just kind of starting tariff wars, raising costs on consumers moves us in the wrong direction.”
Macedo followed up, “So, do you think it was a mistake for President Biden not to reverse those tariffs on China, or do you support those tariffs?”
DelBene responded, “I think that, again, Congress needs to be consulted when we look at these policies going forward, and that we need to do policies that make sense in terms of supporting American workers and American business and making sure that we support trade rules that are fair.”
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