Warren Backs Trump’s Tariffs: ‘I Was Very Glad To See What The President Had Done’

ROBERTS: Let’s move on to trade. The president, as you know, slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum or restarted the 15-day countdown clock. Ahead of the announcement, you said, quote: The proposed tariffs take the right approach but they target a narrow section of the economy and put our allies in the same boat as countries like China that cheat constantly on trade all the while the administration ignores the root of the problem.

Now, the president started off by exempting Canada and Mexico, at least for the time being. Also said he’d be open to other exemptions. Has he met you half way here?

WARREN: So I was very glad to see what the president had done. Look, I have been a critic for a long time about U.S. trade policy. My view is that we have negotiated one deal after another that has been great for big multinational corporations and been lousy for American workers, lousy for American small businesses, often, not even good for American consumers.

So, what I’d like to see us do is rethink our whole trade strategy. And I’m not afraid of using tariffs as part of that trade strategy.

And I was glad when, after I made that statement, that the president distinguished our allies from China, and said, wait a minute we have to do something different here. But you can’t do this. It’s just a little tiny piece of the economy or a small piece of the economy.

It’s got to be part of an overall trade strategy that puts American workers, American small businesses first. That’s what I really want to see.

ROBERTS: Is that not what the president is doing?

WARREN: Well, he’s got two industries in front of him. He started out with an announcement that was going to apply to everyone — our enemies and our friends alike.

I think what it takes is you got to think about trade in a much broader way. It’s very much about tariffs but it’s also the negotiations, for example, have been about things like intellectual property rights and copyrights and access to domestic markets.

ROBERTS: But, Senator, he is talking about all of that.

Let’s turn to another subject, we have minimal time here, so let me —

WARREN: And I hope he does, OK.