The Trump Administration's Approach to Trade

Floor Speech

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Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the administration's approach to trade and the pain that we are already feeling due to the shortsighted and poorly-considered decisions that have been made.

Since the administration announced its plans in March to use wide- ranging tariffs to address trade imbalances, I have been warning the President and the Nation that this is a wrongheaded approach. So many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle, I believe, agree.

We all want to see American jobs secure and increase opportunities for our economy; that is without doubt. But raising broadly-defined tariffs will do, I believe, just the opposite. We all know, or at least most of us know, that the most likely effect of raising tariffs will be other countries adjusting their trade measures to protect their economies and their industries and their workers.

Let's realize that, in the global economy that we live in today, most countries have leverage. I hope the President realizes this. And what happens as a result? We have a trade war. That is where we are going, and I have been saying since March, no one, Mr. Speaker, no one wins in a trade war; which is why both Republicans and Democrats have publicly expressed grave concerns with the administration's tariff-based approach to trade.

But beyond the warnings and concerns, Mr. Speaker, we are now feeling the negative impacts of the administration's approach. Without a doubt, our country is beginning to engage in these stages of a trade war.

Tariffs, for example, on California agriculture products are already in place. Forty-four percent of California's agriculture economy, which is the number 1 agricultural State in the Nation, 44 percent of it is based upon international trade. Almonds, wine, pistachios, citrus, all face increased tariffs on exports to China, and that is just the start. It is also taking place in Mexico and Canada.

I met with a California almond processor yesterday who told me that, as a result of these tariffs, the Chinese buyers are staying away from the table. He told me that this time of the year he usually has sold a significant portion of his harvest to Chinese buyers, but because of the uncertainty of these tariffs he hasn't sold a single pound.

Mr. Speaker, the retaliatory tariffs imposed in reaction to this administration's steel and aluminum tariffs are already impacting the California agriculture economy, which, again, 44 percent of it is based upon international trade, and it is hurting our relationships with many of our allies in Europe, as well as our neighbors to the north and to the south.

Yes, there are trade imbalances in the global market we live in, and we should address them. There is bipartisan agreement we should address them. But the way to address these trade imbalances is through successful re-negotiation of NAFTA, negotiating trade agreements with our European and Pacific Rim allies. That is the way to deal with the trade imbalances.

We cannot address trade imbalances or arrive at mutually beneficial agreements through trade wars, plain and simple. What's more, the President and the Congress must work together on trade agreements.

Based upon where we are today, it looks like it will require us in Congress to re-assert our constitutional authority and responsibility to regulate international trade agreements. That is part of our job. This will take hard work, bipartisan negotiations, and serious policy deliberations which, in turn, requires that we overcome our partisan division and come together as America's Congress.

I call on my colleagues today to join me in real negotiations, in real bipartisan work, and in the type of policy deliberations that our Nation needs and that America deserves. We can do this and we must do this.

Our country currently is being led by this administration into a very real trade war, but it is not too late to stop it, and it is Congress' responsibility, frankly, to say, time out. Let's sit down and work together with our allies in Europe, our neighbors to the north and to the south of us, and in the Pacific Rim, to do what is right, and that is to ensure that we protect American workers, American industries, American agriculture, and, yes, that we don't engage in a trade war that will lead to no good end.

We can fix this trade imbalance, and we should, and we must assert ourselves.

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