On Tuesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Rep. James Comer (R-KY) stated that tariffs on China “hurt Americans. There’s pain being realized by both sides,” and tariffs “probably didn’t do anything to help with affordability, but if we want to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, we have to focus on manufacturing things in the United States.”
Comer said, “I would support banning anything from China if they don’t stop their unfair trade practices of manipulating their currency, of stealing our intellectual property and our patents, and if they don’t start complying with basic environmental laws and regulations that every other country on the planet complies with. So, I think we have to play hardball here, that’s what the tariffs were all about.”
He added that “we’ve put tariffs on China, and it’s hurt Americans. There’s pain being realized by both sides, China and the United States. Hopefully, hopefully, we can start to resolve some of these trade war conflicts that we have with China, because I think China can produce some goods that we could never produce anywhere near as cheap as China, and that’s good for American consumers who go to the Dollar General store and go to Walmart, like I do. But, also, I don’t think we should depend on China for anything important to our national security. We should produce all of our pharmaceuticals in the United States. We should produce all of our food in the United States. But we need China to buy some soybeans and tobacco and other products that are grown in my home state of Kentucky.”
Later, Comer stated, “He’s trying to do everything he can to put America first. He put the tariffs on. That probably didn’t do anything to help with affordability, but if we want to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, we have to focus on manufacturing things in the United States.”
He also said that we “need” China to be a fair partner to lower prices, Trump is focused on prices, and said that he’s “hopeful” that, due to seeing Trump is serious on tariffs and the threat of further tariffs, China will be willing to sit down and come to a free trade agreement with the U.S.
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