Former President Donald J. Trump unveiled his plans for a “sweeping pro-American overhaul of our tax and trade policy” aimed at bolstering American production and shedding economic dependence on China.
In a campaign video released Monday, Trump first blasted President Joe Biden, stating that despite his claims to be pro-American manufacturing, he is “pushing the same pro-China globalist agenda that ripped the industrial heart out of our country.”
Watch:
Trump shared his vision “to move from the Biden system that punishes domestic producers and rewards outsourcers to a system that rewards domestic production and taxes foreign companies and those who export American jobs.”
“To achieve this goal, we will phase in a system of universal base-line tariffs on most foreign products. On top of this, higher tariffs will increase incrementally depending on how much individual foreign countries devalue their currency,” Trump said.
He added taxes on American producers will reduce as the new tariff system is employed, enabling domestic employers to hire more workers:
As tariffs on foreign producers go up, taxes on American producers will go down and go down very substantially, and that means a lot of jobs coming in. Not only will this system end our gaping trade deficits – and they are massive right now – and bring back millions of American jobs, it will also bring trillions and trillions of dollars pouring into the United States Treasury from foreign countries and allow us to invest that money in American workers, American families, and American communities.
This plan will be the linchpin of a new strategic manufacturing initiative that builds on my historical success in ending NAFTA [North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement].
Trump then focused exclusively on China, putting forth a series of policy plans, including phasing out all key imports, to “completely eliminate dependence on China in all critical areas.”
He explained:
We will revoke China’s most-favored-nation trade status and adopt a four year plan to phase out all Chinese imports of essential goods, everything from electronics to steel to pharmaceuticals. This will include strong protections to ensure China cannot circumvent restrictions by passing goods through conduit countries – countries that don’t make a product, but all of the sudden they’re selling a lot of product. It comes right through China, right out China, and right into our country.
We will also adopt new rules to stop U.S. companies from pouring investments into China and to stop China from buying up America… And we will eliminate federal contracts to any company that outsources to China.
The 45th president asserted that Biden “will never get the job done” and that “[h]e is weak on China because the corrupt Biden family has received millions and millions of dollars from entities tied to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Last year, the trade deficit closed in on $1 trillion after climbing 12.2 percent since 2021, the New York Times reported earlier this month. Moreover, the “U.S. trade deficit with China grew 8.3 percent annually to $382.9 billion, the second-highest total on record,” noted Ana Swanson, a trade and international economics reporter for the Times.
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