Texas Senator speaks on tariffs and trade wars

AUSTIN – Sen. Ted Cruz warned his podcast listeners on Friday that Trump’s worldwide tariffs could harm Americans, but the senator is willing to wait and see how the tariffs play out.

“There is the potential for upside, but there are enormous risks,” Cruz said on an episode of his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz.”

The tarrifs, announced by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, range from 10% to 50% on goods from almost every country. Trump sees these tariffs as a way to protect American workers by bringing manufacturing to the United States and a way to punish other countries for their own trade restrictions.

However, Cruz said these tariffs could lead to increased prices for American consumers, lost jobs and a potential trade war. If the tariffs stay in place and other countries add tariffs to goods from the United States, Cruz said it could be terrible for Texas and the rest of the country.

“It will hurt jobs and hurt America, and there is a very real risk of that,” Cruz said of a potential trade war.

The Senator also said that if the tariffs stay in place, they will become the “biggest tax increase we have seen in a long, long, long time.”

Even so, Cruz isn’t moving away from the president’s tariff plan. He sees a possibility world leaders come to the president, ask for the tariffs to be removed, and offer to reverse their own tariffs on American products.

On Wednesday, Cruz joined most Republicans in voting against a bill to block Trump’s tariffs on Canada – a measure that passed the chamber with the support of four Republicans and every Democrat. With chances unlikely in the House, it remains a mostly symbolic way for senators to express concerns about the Trump trade policy. Cruz has also not moved to support plans to limit a president’s ability to implement tariffs without the backing of Congress.

Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Ideally, Cruz said, countries will decrease tariffs on American goods and the Trump administration would respond by eliminating the tariffs on those countries. He said this would be a good outcome for small businesses, manufacturers and workers.

“If that happens, I will say Donald Trump had a vision on trade that very few people in the world saw, and this was a friggin home run,” Cruz said.

The senator also acknowledged that this broad approach to tariffs hasn’t been tried since the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariffs — a move that likely worsened the Great Depression. But, Cruz said the size of the American economy now might give the country more leverage and lead to a better outcome than the 1930 tariffs.

Cruz – chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation – focused much of his concern in the podcast episode on the impact tariffs could have on American car manufacturing. He said that one of the “big three” American car manufacturers this week told him that the tariffs will cause American car prices to increase and that foreign manufacturers may benefit more.

This week, Cruz said, could be the most consequential in Trump’s entire second term.

“I’m seeing a lot of Republican cheerleaders that are kind of reflexively defending what the White House is doing,” Cruz said. “Listen, I love President Trump, I’m his strongest supporter, and I think he’s doing incredible things as president. But here’s one thing to understand, a tariff is a tax.”

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.