Hatch rips commerce secretary over Trump tariffs

Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch Wednesday blasted the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs, arguing that they threaten to damage U.S. manufacturing and agriculture and “utterly fail” to address China’s overproduction. “I just don’t see how the damage posed on all of these sectors could possibly advance our national security,” he said at the start of a hearing to grill Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on the administration‘s recent trade actions. The Utah Republican also expressed outrage over a similar investigation by the administration into whether imports of automobiles threaten national security. He said he was “stunned“ to hear the administration launch the additional probe under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. “This investigation covers more than $200 billion worth of trade, four times larger than that under the steel and aluminum investigations combined,” he said. “A car isn’t a can of soup, Mr. Secretary,” he added, referencing a television appearance by Ross in which he held up a can of Campbell’s soup and tried to downplay the steel tariffs by saying a price increase would only be a fraction of a cent. Hatch said a 25 percent tariff on an average-priced imported car worth $23,200 could potentially erase 10 percent of the median U.S. household income of $59,000. “That’s why I call tariffs a tax on American families,” he said. source: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/20/orrin-hatch-commerce-secretary-trump-tariffs-655499 #Headlines by: ABehsudi@politico.com (Adam Behsudi)

Original Post: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/20/orrin-hatch-commerce-secretary-trump-tariffs-655499