During Sunday’s broadcast of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), chairwoman of the House Republican Conference Committee, defended the Trump administration’s use of tariffs in response to Canada’s willingness to let China evade U.S. trade barriers.
According to the Michigan Republican, Canada was not being a “good trading partner” with the United States.
“Congresswoman, you were talking about how Michigan was navigating some of the Trump tariffs,” “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan said. “The National Taxpayers Union Foundation said those tariffs cost your state $23 billion since January of 2025. That’s the equivalent of $5,619 per Michigan household. There are more tariffs coming on Tuesday from Canada to hit back at the U.S. It’s going to hit aluminum, dairy, steel, appliances. This is a big market for Michigan. How much is this going to hurt?
McClain replied, “Yes. Listen, I shop at the same grocery stores as everybody else does. But what the president’s trying to do is actually level the playing field because what we’re not happy with is we wanMargat a trading partner with Canada. And right now, they’re not being a great trading partner. And I’ll give you a great example. We have tariffs, for example. Country of origin tariffs. For example, on China. What our trading partner, Canada, is doing is say, ‘Hey, China, put your goods through Canada. We’ll take a little piece off the top. Then we will pass those goods through to the Americans and act like there is no tariff, like they came from China.’ That’s not a good trading partner, number one.”
“Number two, we have to level the playing field like I said earlier. Canada, since the 1990s, has had tax and tariffs on our dairy farmers at 250%,” she added.
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