ROCHESTER — GOP Congressman Brad Finstad defended President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs against other countries, arguing that Trump was seeking to address an uneven playing field between the U.S. and other countries that had long been neglected.
“There was a shake-up needed to get people back to the table,” Finstad said during a 45-minute interview at the Post Bulletin, referring to the sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs imposed last week on allies and adversaries around the world. The move rattled stock and bond markets.
Finstad defended the use of tariffs against U.S. allies and trading partners, because it showed that the U.S. was serious about addressing barriers to trade that other countries had erected against the U.S.
“There was a need to get the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam to the table,” Finstad said. “If you looked at the tariffs, it was not an even playing field. So the tariff decisions he made on that day, he had 70 some countries reach out to him. He’s at 15 deals on the table right now.”
Finstad said that it would behoove the Trump administration to lock in those deals as quickly as possible to show progress, given the disruption and uncertainty the tariffs had created.
During the interview, Finstad was asked about the uneven application of Trump’s tariffs and the uneven playing field it had created among domestic businesses.
Soon after its "Liberation Day" announcement, the Trump administration exempted smartphones and semiconductors from the “reciprocal tariffs” it had announced. Its effect was to make it easier for a trillion-dollar company like Apple and other high-tech firms to import their products from China than it is for a small businesswoman from Oronoco to bring baby products manufactured in China into the U.S.
Finstad said the question raised a bigger issue that “we don’t make things in this country anymore that we have become reliant on.”
“What are we doing as a country from a national security perspective to make sure that we still can do some of these things — whether it's pharmaceuticals, whether it's vitamins for our animal feed?” Finstad said. “We have put ourselves in a 20-year slump where we don’t know how to produce that anymore. So there is a bigger conversation that has to happen about, ‘How did we get to this point?’”
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Some have argued that the U.S. is largely abandoning its leadership role in creating a world of rules-based globalization and free trade. The U.S. was viewed as the envy of the world in terms of economic growth compared to other developed countries. Why was it necessary to deliver the “shock therapy,” as his regime of tariffs have been characterized, to the world economy and risk the possibility of recession, when the U.S. was faring well?
Finstad said that narrative ignores and obscures U.S. weakness in other areas, such as manufacturing and the federal debt. He said there were national security reasons for the U.S. to reshore some manufacturing and mining activity, whether it's chips, critical minerals or energy.
“When you look at our place in the global world, yes, you can look at different metrics and how to measure that. But for right or wrong, our adversaries see us as a weak manufacturing country that couldn’t uptick our munitions production. That we don’t have the financial backbone or wherewithal because of our $36 trillion in debt to sustain some sort of military conflict," he said.
Asked about efforts to pass the president’s “big, beautiful bill” that would extend tax cuts and bolster the border and military, Finstad did not sound sanguine.
“It's going to be a heavy lift," Finstad said.
Republicans, who control both the House and Senate, are struggling to reconcile the chambers’ respective blueprints. The House has far more spending cuts than does the Senate in its version. And there are other red lines that could snarl up a final resolution.
“Shame on every elected official, Republican and Democrat, if we don’t pass (a tax bill),” Finstad said. “If we don’t, we’re going to have the largest tax increase in the history of our country and we’re going to do nothing to address our $36 trillion debt.”
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Asked if Finstad would support legislation that would take back Congress’s trade authority from the president, he said, “maybe.” But he questioned whether Congress as a group could create a coherent trade policy.
"If you look at the way Congress operates right now, I don’t know how we do it in this climate,” Finstad said.
Observers of Trump say the president loves chaos, the more the better. Finstad was asked whether he believed that was true.
“I don’t know if I’d say chaos. I think he loves speed. I don’t think he sits still. And because of that pace and that constant movement, it appears to be chaotic. It might feel like chaos but it’s just speed," Finstad said.
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