Warren, Sanders Bash FTAs While Others Criticize Tariffs
Some candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination emphasized the cost to consumers of tariffs, while others focused on how past trade deals encouraged outsourcing, on July 30 in the first of two consecutive nights of debates. A CNN moderator put Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, on the spot by asking him whether he sides with steelmakers or steel consumers in his decision to continue or end Section 232 tariffs on steel. Ryan, whose hometown of Youngstown was once a steel powerhouse, pivoted to talking about China. But when pressed, he said, "I would have to re-evaluate. I think some of them are effective. But he's bungled the whole thing, obviously."
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Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke said, "the question was about tariffs. And they're a huge mistake. They constitute the largest tax increase on the American consumer, hitting the middle class and the working poor especially hard, and farmers in Iowa and across the country are bearing the brunt of the consequences." Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper agreed, and said, "Trade wars are for losers." Former Rep. John Delaney, who supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., tangled over her plan for trade negotiations (see 1907290028). Delaney said Warren's plan would be isolationism, and that "we have to engage with fair, rules-based trade."
Warren said, "You know, for decades, we have had a trade policy that has been written by giant multi-national corporations to help giant multi-national corporations. They have no loyalty to America. They have no patriotism. If they can save a nickel by moving a job to Mexico, they'll do it in a heartbeat. If they can continue a polluting plant by moving it to Vietnam, they'll do it in a heartbeat," she said.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said, "Elizabeth is absolutely right. If anybody here thinks that corporate America gives one damn about the average American worker, you're mistaken. If they can save five cents by going to China, Mexico, or Vietnam, or anyplace else, that's exactly what they will do." He said he would bar companies from military contracts that shift work to other countries and lay off U.S. workers.
Warren said the other candidates are missing the point when they criticize tariffs, because free trade deals are primarily about regulatory issues, not tariff reduction. "Anyone who thinks that these trade deals are mostly about tariffs just doesn’t understand what’s going on. Look at the new NAFTA 2.0. What’s the central feature? It’s to help pharmaceutical companies get longer periods of exclusivity so they can charge Canadians, Americans, and Mexicans more money and make more profits," she said.
"That's what trade deals have become. They have become a way for giant multinationals to change the regulatory environment so they can suck more profits out for themselves and to leave the American people behind. We have to have the courage to fight back against that corruption."