Fans of President Trump’s trade and tariff policies have to contend with a persistent distraction to their efforts to shape the debate on the issue: Trump himself.
The commander-in-chief’s frequent tweets and off-the-cuff comments have often stepped on the message, tariff fans say.
“This administration prefers headlines over policy. On the same day that they announce good policy on steel, they also announce that they are going to try to get back into [the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal],” Robert Scott, director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, told the Washington Examiner.
Trump had been a relentless critic of TPP during the 2016 election and made getting the U.S. out of the negotiations one of his first actions in office. The president’s sudden about-face on the issue last week left TPP’s fans and critics alike shaking their heads.
The confusion continued this week. On Tuesday, Trump appeared to refute the reports that his administration was trying to re-enter the TPP, tweeting, “I don’t like the deal for the United States… Bilateral deals are far more efficient.” The following day, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told the House Appropriations Committee, “We would welcome that arrangement with joining those other 11 countries [in TPP]. It would be a great unification against China.” A USDA spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Elizabeth Drake, a trade lawyer with the firm Schagrin Associates, applauded the administration for rejecting the “laissez faire status quo” but said the debate on the issue has often suffered. “I get frustrated sometimes that people don’t look at the substance … there is a lot of substance there” to the administration’s policies, she told the Washington Examiner.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told an audience at the National Press Club last week, “I support or oppose presidents regardless of party based on their positions on trade. I support the steel tariffs with President Trump. I wish he hadn’t said, ‘This is a trade war. I want a trade war.'”
Brown’s quote was somewhat off, but Trump has used the words “trade war” in connection with his policies. To lawmakers such as Brown, who have long called warnings that tariffs would lead to trade wars “fear-mongering,” that’s not a useful way to frame the argument. “It is not a trade war. It is a trade enforcement action,” Brown insisted.
Others noted that the debate on trade issues was never going to be easy. “Even if you don’t frame it the right way, it can be healthy to have the discussion, ” said Elizabeth Baltzan, a World Trade Organization litigator with the firm Wiley Rein.
