President Trump on Thursday celebrated his trade deal with Europe with Illinois steelworkers who credit the president’s much-maligned tariffs with saving their jobs.
Mr. Trump said he wasn’t done with tariffs and other get-tough measures, as he quickly pivoted to the trade fight with China.
“After years of shutdowns and cutbacks, today the blast furnace here in Granite City is blazing bright, workers are back on the job and we are once again pouring new American steel into the spine of our country,” Mr. Trump said to cheers from workers at the steel mill in Granite City, Illinois.
For Mr. Trump, the steelworkers are at the heart of his tough negotiation to rewrite what he says are decades of bad trade deals that have ripped off the U.S. and its workers.
He said he would be happy to be working beside them at the blast furnace.
“Together we are sending a message to our foreign competitors: The days of plundering American jobs and wealth — those days are over,” he said, vowing to go after China, calling the country a “trade cheater” that steals America’s intellectual property.
The president is something of a hero at Granite City Works, which had been shuttered for more than two years when Mr. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs in March prompted U.S. Steel to fire up the furnaces and hire hundreds of workers.
Joining Mr. Trump on stage, U.S. Steel CEO David B. Burritt said the steel industry was making a comeback after decades of decline because of the president’s hard-nosed bargaining.
“We just know he will never blink,” he said.
The tariffs rescued Granite City but also sent ripples across the global economy, igniting trade feuds with major trading partners such as China, Canada and the EU. Mr. Trump refused to back down amid fierce criticism of the tariffs from Wall Street, business leaders and Republican lawmakers.
His tough stance, including threats of more tariffs on European cars, led to a breakthrough zero-tariff agreement Wednesday between the U.S. and the EU.
It remains to be seen how the administration’s 25-percent tariff on steel and 10-percent tariff on aluminum fit into the zero-tariff deal with the EU. The steel and aluminum tariffs were justified as a national security move to promote domestic productions of those metals, which have crucial military uses.
At the steel mill, Mr. Trump vowed to keep the pressure on China, which has been dragging its feet in negotiating a trade deal with the administrant.
The administration this month slapped tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to retaliate with tariffs on the same amount of American goods, targeting agriculture products to put the hurt on states that make up Mr. Trump’s political base.
Mr. Trump’s team has readied additional tariffs on as much as $300 billion of Chinese goods.
“Now China is going after our soybean farmers in the hopes that we will surrender,” Mr. Trump said. “Not happening. Our farmers are patriots.”
Earlier, in front of an audience Peosta, Iowa, Mr. Trump touted the EU deal that included Europe agreeing to buy a large amount of soybeans from America.
“We just opened up Europe for you farmers,” he said. “You’re not going to be too angry with Trump. You have just gotten yourself one big market.”
To underscore his point, Mr. Trump came to the event with green caps with the slogan, “Make Our Farmers Great Again.”
Congress members from farm states had started to buck Mr. Trump over the tariff wars, which led the administration to offer a $12 billion bailout for farmers adversely impacted by China’s retaliatory tariffs.
The new deal with Europe could ease some worries in the heartland.
Larry Kudlow, the director of the president’s National Economic Council, said the EU also committed to backing the U.S. trade fight with China.
“The United States and the EU will be allies in the fight against China, which has broken the world trading system,” Mr. Kudlow said on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.”
China attempted to enlist the EU to oppose Mr. Trump’s get-tough trade policies but EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker refused, he said.
“Juncker made it very clear yesterday that he intended to help us [and] President Trump on the China problem,” he said.
• Dave Boyer contributed to this report.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.