Sen. Stabenow: Trump ‘Shooting in All Directions’ When It Comes to Trade
“What we have in this administration is just basically shooting in all directions and creating complete instability,” says Stabenow.
Ford has announced it will stop producing economy sedans in China that are sold in the United States, due to the tariffs President Trump has put on Chinese imports.
Trump says that’s a good thing because now Ford will consider manufacturing that car in the United States. However, Ford issued this statement:
“It would not be profitable to build the Focus Active in the U.S. given an expected annual sales volume of fewer than 50,000 units and its competitive segment. Ford is proud to employ more U.S. hourly workers and build more vehicles in the U.S. than any other automaker.”
It was an unambiguous refutation of what the president said, and not the first in this realm of trade and tariffs and imports.
What does it all mean, going forward?
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) joins Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson to talk about this situation, as well as other issues surrounding trade and manufacturing.
“I think the big question around trade and tariffs is it’s just very complicated,” says Stabenow. “And I think that the White House really is, first of all, they are disrupting all kinds of things from NAFTA to charging Canada as a national security threat…they’re going towards China…what we have in this administration is just basically shooting in all directions and creating complete instability in terms of decisions that need to be made.”
She also talks about what these disruptions mean for farmers as lawmakers debate the new farm bill.
“You can move the factory overseas, you can’t move the farm,” says Stabenow. “And they’re losing markets because of all the instability,”
Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.
