Some Republican senators are being increasingly wary about Donald Trump's plans to impose aggressive tariffs on imported goods — and they're already showing signs of pushback
States with large agriculture industries are especially vulnerable to foreign retaliation, and GOP senators from those states expressed concerns about the president-elect's broad tariffs targeting China and Mexico, reported Politico.
“Tariffs have a place, but there is also the other side, which is: what about the repercussions of [countries] putting tariffs in a retaliatory method on some of our items as well?” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD). “There is a place for tariffs, but I want to look at them case-by-case.”
Trump has proposed tariffs of up to 20 percent on all goods entering the U.S. and a 60 percent tariff on all imports from China, but that nation and Mexico are the biggest buyers of U.S. farm goods and would likely cut off that business in response.
“I'm not for just arbitrary, across-the-board tariffs, but I think they're a very, very useful tool in getting countries' attention to play fair,” said Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
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Sen. John Thune (R-SD), who will be the GOP majority leader starting in January, has expressed concern about tariffs and their impact on the agriculture industry back home in South Dakota.
“I'm not a big fan of tariffs, and I made that clear during the last Trump administration for the reason you just mentioned, because the retaliatory action taken by countries with whom we need to do business and who are big markets for American agriculture,” Thune said.
Trump continues to claim that China would be paying the tariffs, but even MAGA Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) admitted those costs would be paid by U.S. importers and likely passed on to consumers.
"A lot of people don't really understand [that] tariffs sometimes are paid by the person that is importing, not the one that is exporting into your country,” Tuberville said. “So we got to be careful about that.”
