A new bill, the United States Reciprocal Trade Act, would help the U.S. economy by making tariffs more reciprocal between nations and creating fair competition, Rep. Sean Duffy, who is presenting the bill, and could lead to more fair competition, Rep. Sean Duffy said Thursday.
"You look at the president trying to use tariffs to make sure we have fair trade deals with the rest of the the world," the Wisconsin Republican told Fox Business' "Mornings With Maria." "What I want to do is say Mr. President, why don't we give you the tools to go product for product, country for country so you can focus directly on Europe."
For example, Europe has a 10 percent tariff on U.S. autos, but both countries have tariffs on butter, he said, or "you can go to China. They have an 80 percent tariff on our autos. We have virtually no tariff on their autos."
The idea is that the United States is free traders and don't want tariffs, said Duffy, but trading partners have "no incentive to negotiate with us, to lower prices, because they get the better end of the deal."
"Right now the president's right," said Duffy. "We're losing jobs. We're losing our manufacturing capacity because our guys can't compete because of tariffs all around the world on US products."
However, he said he does not like the way Trump uses tariff tools today, as "we're throwing blanket tariffs all over the world. Let's make them targeted so we can look at products and at countries and be more forward."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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