Ron Johnson: Trump Trade Policies Doing 'Permanent Damage'

While he supports President Donald Trump pushing for reciprocal trade treatment, particularly with China, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said he hopes the president can use his tariff leverage swiftly to get deals done to avert trade wars, because "right now there is some permanent damage being done."

"He's talked about the short-term pain for the long-term gain, right now there is some permanent damage being done, and the sooner we can conclude these deals the better off we'll all be," Johnson told host John Catsimatidis on "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y.

"I think the best way to get China to adhere to rules is with the united front of the rest of the trading world demanding that China start living by the rules, because if we don't do it that way, they won't."

Johnson said his state of Wisconsin, a manufacturing and farming state, has "been particularly targeted" by tariffs, especially the steel tariffs "hitting us pretty hard."

"The problem with that is it raises the cost of American-manufactured products, Wisconsin-manufactured products, which makes them less competitive on the global trade markets, and that will exacerbate our trade deficit," Johnson told host John Catsimatidis.

Johnson backed motorcycle-maker Harley Davidson's potential move out of Wisconsin, because they are "doing what they have to do to stay competitive."

"What happened with Harley basically is the trade war," Johnson said. "They were paying 6 percent tariffs [to get] into Europe, now it's 31 percent. If they manufacture in another country, they can enjoy the lower steel prices and remain competitive.

"So, they really don't have a choice."

Johnson said he agrees with President Trump on "free trade with no tariffs anywhere."

"What President Trump is trying to achieve is correct," he added. "I'm just concerned that you're not necessary going to bludgeon China into agreeing unless we have the rest of our trading allies with us to make sure that China does agree.

". . . We may lose less, but everybody loses in trade wars."

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