America’s Industrial Heartland is Watching Your Trade Decisions, President Trump
There’s a small space, a sliver of overlap in the Venn diagram mapping the policy positions of President Trump and industrial state Democrats. It’s occupied by trade.
Nope, they might not agree on much else. But trade policy is the exception. It remains a big issue in places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. States Trump won, and that these legislators call home. To many voters there, trade intersects in a clearly defined way with the most straightforward of concerns: Job security.
Whose jobs? Their jobs, their neighbors’ jobs. And specifically, the kinds of jobs available in their hometowns that generate local wealth.
Simply put, trade done right keeps Americans working and paying their bills, and it’s what these voters ask for every four years.
It’s why Democrats put forth proposals linked to trade that are meant to encourage job creation at home. For example: Sen. Tammy Baldwin (WI) wants to tighten rules that control access to government procurement markets so American workers get the first shot at those contracts; Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH) has asked for Buy America specifics to be reinforced during a NAFTA rewrite; and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI) has introduced legislation that would grants tax credits for domestic job creation.
It’s also well-documented that President Trump is a longtime skeptic of American trade policy. Long before he became president he bemoaned America’s trade deficits. Once his campaign began, he doggedly stuck to the issue.
Since his inauguration, he’s continued to talk a big game, promising to put “America first,” ordering a review into existing bilateral trade deficits and the collection of outstanding duties for unfairly traded products.
He’s even ordered investigations into the uneven trade of specific commodities — in this case, steel and aluminum — and their effect on national security. These “Section 232” investigations, named in reference to their place in U.S. trade law, both reflect the critical importance steel and aluminum play in our defense industrial base. Aluminum isn’t just in your soda can; it’s the lightweight material for the bodies of our jets. And specialized steel lines the hulls of our battleships and submarines, as well as the armored plate for our tanks.
The domestic steel and aluminum industries have been deluged by impossibly cheap import competition in recent years — much of it from state-subsidized competition in China. Thousands of steelworkers have been laid off. There’s only one aluminum smelter still in business in the United States.
The president should be praised, then, for directing his trade authorities to focus on these critical sectors. And he’s received it from those industrial state Democrats.
But the question remains: Will President Trump follow through on all of the trade promises he made?
The president is running up against his own deadline. He and his Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, have promised to define the scope of these Section 232 investigations by the end of June. As the clock winds down, there are reports that President Trump is facing pressure to limit their reach.
If President Trump caves in to that pressure, it will be grounds for major disappointment.
He’s already shown he’s willing to use other trade issues as diplomatic chits — remember when he declined to label China a currency manipulator in return for Beijing’s “help” with the North Korean regime? — and a watered-down ruling on steel, aluminum, and security would help eliminate one of the few areas where the president can find some bipartisan common ground.
In 2017, we need all the common ground we can get.
What would be worse, though, would be the damage done to his relationship with the voters in Michigans, Ohios, and Wisconsins of the world. Many of them voted for President Trump because they want action to shore up the industries that provided their jobs. Their neighbors’ jobs. Specifically, the kind of jobs available in their hometowns that generate local wealth.
If President Trump caves on this, theirs will be the biggest disappointment of all.
