Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican, is butting heads with President Trump on the White House’s plan for a border tax, which would tax imports, but not exports.
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace asked Walker if his state, a $22 billion exporter of goods, could be hurt by this deal.
“We want good trade. We want it to be fair and we want it to be free. We want to have trade with all of those different countries that you talked about,” Walker said.
The former 2016 Republican presidential candidate is worried a U.S. border tax could cause countries to slap the same tax on all imports from Wisconsin.
“We want to make sure that if a Harley-Davidson is sold in Japan or China it is treated the way that it would be if a Kawasaki or Toyota might be sold coming into the states. So free trade goes hand in hand,” Walker added.
In the same interview, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, said foreign nations would “reciprocate immediately” against the U.S. if it imposes this tax.
Walker said Congress should bring the employer tax rate down to rates comparable to those in other industrialized countries.
McAuliffe called for tax reform.
“Do I think we need tax reform? Absolutely,” McAuliffe said. “The more we can reform taxes, put more money into people’s pockets so they can spend more is by far the single biggest stimulant we can do for our economy today. Let’s bring back this overseas money … We gotta make it attractive to the individuals, the CEOs, the shareholders.”
