Senate Majority Leader Says Global Tariffs 'Problematic'
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that senators are starting to have conversations about what incoming President Donald Trump might do on tariffs, and said, "We'll work through that."
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Thune, who was speaking at an American Petroleum Institute event Jan. 14, was asked by API's chief executive how he, and the Republican majority, were thinking about potential tariffs.
It's not clear how Trump will bring down the tariff hammer; he has said he will impose 60% tariffs on all goods from China, 10% or 20% on all other goods; and, more recently, has said he would impose 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods and 10% tariffs on China, as well as substantial tariffs on Denmark, to pry Greenland out of its control.
"The conversation around tariffs is a whole new one," Thune said, laughing nervously.
"The president obviously is a big believer in tariffs, as are many people that will populate his administration. Those of us who represent agricultural states have perhaps more of a nuanced view on that," he said, partly because they've seen the impacts of retaliation from countries that were hit by tariffs in the first Trump administration.
He noted that more than half of soybeans grown in South Dakota are exported to China, and called the trading relationship between the U.S. and China "symbiotic."
"I've always believed that tariffs, used selectively, used in a targeted way, represent a good remedy in many cases, if there are countries we're doing business with that are cheating," Thune said. "I like that approach, I think it does serve a purpose. I think universal across-the-board tariffs could be ... problematic in a lot of ways."
He said other farm state senators tend to share his views of the value of trade relationships.