The most recent Presidential debate has illustrated that Democrats are trying desperately to define their identity in the era of President Trump. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than on the topic of trade policy, where some Democrats reluctantly find themselves in agreement with the president.
Democrats have traditionally resisted the idea of free trade in recent decades, but with the election of President Trump, many republican legislators are now skeptical as well.
On the left, Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have historically been against free trade agreements that don't put America's interests first, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and for revitalizing American manufacturing.
On the right, former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan and current President Donald Trump have historically been against blanket free trade as well, stressing the need for fair trade while emphasizing the importance of a robust American manufacturing sector. President Trump famously canceled TPP on day one of his presidency.
Consistent with his opposition to globalist, anti-competitive trade deals, President Trump moved early on to protect American companies in the washer industry, detailing import tariffs as high as 50 percent. This was in response to a surge in washing machine imports between 2012 and 2016 that resulted in a multimillion-dollar market share losses for domestic companies like Whirlpool.
Consequently, in May 2017, Whirlpool, an American manufacturer, filed a petition with the bipartisan U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to protest practices by South Korean-based Samsung and LG, which were shifting production to foreign countries not covered by previous legislative actions to combat unfair trade practices. President Trump agreed with the petition and imposed safeguard measures in January 2018 to create a level playing field and make trade fair for the washer industry.
The result? Despite globalist studies arguing that safeguards slow economic growth and harm the economy, the reality of the situation is anything but. Samsung and LG both announced plans to build big factories in South Carolina and Tennessee, which ultimately resulted in the creation of 16,000 American jobs. On top of that, Whirlpool added another 200 U.S. jobs in spite of $250 million worth of increasing costs for raw materials such as steel and resin. This allowed our U.S. Treasury to collect an additional $82 million in import duties, highlighting the fact that only American workers pay taxes to America.
Whirlpool employs 22,000 U.S. employees overall and 15,000 in manufacturing. Eighty percent of the products Whirlpool sells in American are assembled in America in one of its nine domestic facilities.
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