Shaheen Statement on President Trump’s Imposition of Massive Tariff Taxes
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on President Trump’s self-imposed deadline to put massive tariff taxes in place across the globe:
“Last night President Trump confirmed that Americans will be facing the highest tariffs since the Great Depression thanks to his reckless and chaotic trade war. At a time when Americans are already struggling with high costs, President Trump is making this crisis worse by jacking up prices on everything from cars to coffee.
“Instead of ’90 deals in 90 days,’ we’ve gotten barebones agreements with a handful of countries that leave tariffs as much as ten times higher than they were before he took office. And make no mistake, American workers and businesses are going to pay the price.
“I agree that we should support domestic manufacturing, but President Trump’s tariffs are doing the exact opposite. We’ve actually lost manufacturing jobs every month since he announced global tariffs in April, to the tune of 37,000 in this critical sector. I’ve heard from business after business about the uncertainty and chaos his on-again, off-again approach has created for them. That means less investment, fewer jobs and less growth.
“President Trump promised to lower the price of everything. Yet at every turn, this president has added more costs onto families and businesses. His tariffs deals are simply the next empty promise.”
Senator Shaheen is helping lead efforts in Congress to mitigate the harmful impacts of President Trump's tariffs. This week, Shaheen took to the Senate floor to call for unanimous consent to pass her Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes on Imported Goods Act and highlight the devastating impacts the trade war has on families, small businesses, American manufacturing and key trade partnerships across the world, but Senate Republicans blocked the move. Last week, Shaheen helped introduce bipartisan legislation, Creating Access to Necessary American-Canadian Duty Adjustments (CANADA) Act, that would exempt United States-owned small businesses from the sweeping tariffs imposed on Canadian products. Last month, Shaheen led 30 Senators in filing an amicus brief in a key case, Oregon v. Department of Homeland Security, challenging the Trump Administration’s abuse of emergency powers to impose tariffs.
In recent months, Shaheen has traveled across the Granite State to discuss the impact of tariffs on New Hampshire’s tourism industry and to visit businesses impacted by President Trump’s trade war including Brueckner Group USA, Colby Footwear, Chatila’s Bakery, C&J, DCI Furniture, Mount Cabot Maple, American Calan Inc. and NH Ball Bearings.
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