Trade and Tariffs

Floor Speech

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Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, last week I was invited to the White House to meet with President Trump and his advisers to discuss trade and the renegotiation of NAFTA. My district is the eighth largest agriculture district in the country. For districts like mine, free trade is crucial to ensuring that there are new markets for our farmers and manufacturing to sell their products and goods. That is why I urged the President to maintain and strengthen our existing trade agreements, including NAFTA, not withdraw or create new barriers to free trade.

The American economy is currently booming, thanks to once-in-a- lifetime tax reform, with disposable income seeing its highest jump since 2015. We should be working to build upon this success, not instituting protectionist tariffs that could start a trade war. In the end, the cost of tariffs are passed on to consumers and act like a new form of taxation, which could undo much of the gains we have seen since tax reform.

I urge the President and his team to reconsider the blanket tariffs discussed last week, and instead focus on fighting specific unfair trade practices that put American businesses at a disadvantage.

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