'Smoot-Hawley Tariffs, Which Caused A Recession, Were Only 20%': Maria Cantwell Slams Trump's 30% Tariffs

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During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) spoke about President Trump's 30% tariffs on China.

Transcript

00:00Senator. Thank you, Senator. Senator Catwell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think the witnesses,

00:04today's hearing has already been sobering and also illuminating on about what a better path

00:11forward is. Sobering because you're talking about the cost that we still are being impacted by.

00:17And I think the first thing to remember is that we're still at a 30% tariff right now

00:23on many products. And so that is costing us. I think with all that happy talk about, well,

00:29we decided to pull the gun from the business head related to the 125% plus tariffs. The fact

00:38remains we still have a 30% tariff on products from China. In fact, it's higher than that, 50 or 60%

00:45on steel and aluminum. So the point is the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, which caused a recession,

00:51were only 20%. So here we are still in a world of uncertainty with a 30% tariff. Now, Mr. Ragland,

00:58do you know where Calama, Washington is? It's in the state of Washington, but I don't know

01:05specifically. It just happens to be the second largest port for export of soybeans in the United

01:11States of America. So I pay attention to soybeans. I sure do. And the fact that the last Trump

01:18administration trade war, you were at 62% market share in China competing with Brazil. And he

01:25plummeted you down to 18%. And then somehow you were going to get the Chinese to cooperate or do

01:30something, which they didn't. And guess what? You never recovered. 52%. You never got back to the 62%

01:38high. Because the trade war, as you said in your testimony, created havoc and uncertainty and all

01:45that hard work of all you people going over and getting markets open, you never recovered.

01:50So why are we going to continue this trade war when we know what the results were last time?

01:56So now what I'm hearing, and you're verifying in your testimony, Mr. Isaacson, is that semiconductor costs

02:03are up. That's the input to building and manufacturing semiconductors. We worked hard,

02:10Senator Cornyn and I and many other people, to get that bill, the Chips and Science Act done.

02:15We sure has hacked. We also gave them a NEPA exemption. So we don't want semiconductor inputs

02:20to be more expensive. We don't want motor vehicle parts, which are now 9.3% more expensive, and computer

02:27and electronics. So you all talked about supply chain chaos today, and that's the point. I don't

02:34think somebody told the president, our supply chain, even post his last administration, is so much more

02:41integrated today than it was before. And when you cause supply chain chaos, as you were saying,

02:47Mr. Isaacson, then it leaves us behind in the foot race when we should be opening up market share.

02:52So how many trade agreements has the world done in the last, since 2017? How many have our partners

02:59around the globe done? Ninety. Ninety trade agreements. Ninety. How many did we do? One. We updated the

03:07USMCA. So I represent a very trade dependent part of the United States of America. I support more

03:15trade. I support getting trade deals done. I don't support the disruption and chaos that this is

03:22causing. So Mr. Isaacson, I have a question for you. You basically, well first of all, Mr. Raglan, if we

03:28proceed with where we are, we don't get these tariffs off, will we lose farmers in America? Will we lose actual

03:33farmers in America? Yes. That is a very harsh reality. The farm economy is struggling. I mean,

03:42I'm a younger farmer. I know farmers that have went out of business. There's bankruptcies taking

03:48place. I know older farmers who are choosing to leave the industry because of the limited economic

03:56opportunity. They don't want to lose what they've worked their whole lives for. And so Mr. Isaacson,

04:01you're saying that we should be going in the opposite direction, that we should be building

04:05alliances around semiconductor supply chains and development and that that would enhance the

04:12United States. Because right now you're saying that serious harm is being caused to the semiconductor

04:17industry because of these tariffs. Well, I think the first option is to build it here

04:24and strengthen the US supply chain. But the fact of the matter is that it's a global supply chain

04:30and that's a part of our strength as an industry and therefore we should make sure we have secure

04:37access to key inputs from a diversity of trading partners around the world. And that is essential

04:44to our ability to innovate and compete globally. And you're saying in your testimony we could even do

04:50this better with a bigger sectoral approach. That's correct. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

04:57Thank you. Senator.

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