Mike Pence savages Trump’s tariffs for harm on consumers, businesses: Bloomberg
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The news: Former US Vice President Mike Pence has lashed out at President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda, telling Bloomberg Television that he is taking a starkly different approach from his first term that will harm US consumers and businesses.
The context: During an interview with the media outlet, Pence explained that the tariffs Trump enacted during his first term were designed to force countries to negotiate to lower trade barriers. Pence argued that Trump has abandoned this approach in favour of permanent import levies.
“We used tariffs and the threat of tariffs, principally focused on China, to leverage changes in behaviour, but the objective was to essentially lower trade barriers and expand trade,” Pence said.
“I actually believe that President Trump is driving toward a longterm change in industrial policy in America, where he sees permanent unilateral trade tariff barriers as beneficial to America in the long term,” Pence continued, adding that “as a free market conservative, that’s something I just don’t embrace.”
Pence told Bloomberg that he supports taking a tough stance on China in order to force them to lower barriers to US goods, that the US should “be tough on trade abusers, but have the objective of ultimately lowering trade barriers.”
In addition to slapping a 50% tariff on copper imports, Trump released a new batch of tariff letters on Wednesday, with duties set to take effect 1 August unless agreements are reached. The President said he would impose a 20% tariff on goods from the Philippines, 30% on goods from Sri Lanka, Algeria, Iraq and Libya, and 25% on Brunei and Moldova.
These followed 14 letters issued earlier in the week, including 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea.
Also on Wednesday, Trump announced a 50% tariff on all Brazilian imports starting 1 August, partly in retaliation for the prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The source: Bloomberg
