Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he and his GOP colleagues are concerned that President Trump’s plan to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports could escalate into a damaging trade war right as the U.S. economy is showing signs of life.
“There is a lot of concern among Republican senators that this could sort of metastasize into a larger trade war, and many of our members are discussing with the administration just how broad, how sweeping this might be,” Mr. McConnell told reporters.
“We are urging caution that this develop into something much more dramatic that could send the economy in the wrong direction,” he said.
Mr. Trump said last week he wants to impose a new 25 percent tariff on steel imports into the U.S. and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports, but has gotten bipartisan pushback since then amid concerns about retaliation from foreign countries and the European Union.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that Canada and Mexico could be exempted from the new tariffs if there’s a successful renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Mr. McConnell said NAFTA has been a net positive for his home state of Kentucky.
“There’s been some discussion about linkage to NAFTA,” he said. “[I’d] just say, from a Kentucky point of view, NAFTA has been a big winner.”
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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