Washington, D.C. — Today the White House confirmed it will impose 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada and 10 percent tariffs on goods from China starting on February 1. Patrick Gaspard, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, released the following statement:
Trump is willing to devastate auto and agriculture jobs, raise the cost of living, and make buying groceries and building homes more expensive so that he can saber-rattle and bully others. That’s not standing up for American workers—it’s doing them real harm. To be clear: Trump owns the economic and political consequences of this reckless “strategy.”
While tariffs can be an effective tool to protect American jobs and spur domestic manufacturing when used strategically, these tariffs are harmful to the American economy. They will also hurt our workers, including in vital sectors such as auto manufacturing and those critical to our national security. Perhaps in a favor to his billionaire donors such as Elon Musk, the president has chosen to impose higher tariffs on our closest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, than on our most significant strategic competitor.
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