Warren Davidson: We Hope Trump’s Using Tariffs as a Negotiating Tactic to Get a Better Deal out of NAFTA

‘And that would be a long-term win’

EXCERPT:

KEILAR: "You’ve been very outspoken about this. You directly tweeted responses to the president, one of them you said, couldn’t disagree more. Well here’s what a White House official just told CNN, quote, 'We've had members over to the White House for months now to discuss this. So I think that the President is very aware of where member sentiment is. We had them over to the White House many times to discuss trade policy, and they've articulated their upon on tariffs as well as their desire to see NAFTA renegotiated.' So that’s really the White House congressman saying they've heard you, but they’re going ahead anyway. So what's your reaction to that?"
DAVIDSON: "Well this is something the president clearly has authority to do. And I will say that we've had private conversations behind closed doors and certainly Gary Cohn has had those conversations as well. And so what you see is the time from behind closed doors conversations has -- has come to a pass for now, not that they’re not still happening and we’re going very public with our views. Because it's -- I think it is vitally important to sustain the momentum that we've had in our economy, with the regulatory reforms that the House has passed, with the tax reform that is out there -- we don’t want to steal that momentum. I guess our -- all of our hope is that the president is using this as a negotiating tactic to get a better deal out of NAFTA. And that would be a long-term win."

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