After chamber pushes back on tariffs, SC congressmen say give Trump a chance

While S.C. business leaders are nervous about President Donald Trump’s tariffs, South Carolina’s members of Congress at times Wednesday sounded eager for a trade fight.

Members of the state’s congressional delegation told members of the S.C. Chamber of Commerce that the president has a plan to knock down trade barriers imposed by other countries on U.S. trade and, in the meantime, can lessen the burden of higher tariffs on U.S. businesses.

Asked if he was worried about a trade war, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-North Charleston, told chamber members at Columbia’s Marriott hotel that he sees something less than a war going on now.

“First, we have been in a trade scuffle with our NAFTA partners. We have a trade skirmish with friends from Europe,” Scott said in a Skype call from Washington, D.C. “(Elsewhere) we have a tussle, a kerfluffle. We’re having too many fights.”

Scott said Trump’s strategy has yielded progress toward renegotiating the terms of NAFTA with Canada and Mexico. Last month, Trump and European Union leaders also reached an agreement in principle to avoid tariff escalations while they negotiate a new trade deal.

“What the president is clearly trying to do is provide for fair trade,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Lexington, while recognizing that “bad actors” are using trade rules to hold back U.S. businesses.

The S.C. Chamber has been leery of the administration’s tariff policy. In July, it sent a letter to South Carolina’s congressional lawmakers asking them to do “whatever it takes” to limit the impact tariffs have on South Carolina jobs.

Ted Pitts, president of the S.C. Chamber, said Wednesday that Palmetto State businesses appreciate efforts to level the playing field on trade. But, he added, they’re hopeful the state’s congressional leaders can work with the Trump administration for a “direct approach” that targets problem sectors or countries rather than launch broad trade fights.

“We’ve got to deal with bad actors in trade, and there are going to be winners and losers in that process,” Pitts said.

With businesses like Lexington County’s Nucor steel plant located in his 2nd District, Wilson said he appreciates rules limiting the dumping of cheap Chinese steel in the United States.

Too often, Wilson said, Chinese practices have been unfair to the United States in the past.

“Companies that would like to invest in China, they have to provide a Chinese company 51 percent ownership,” Wilson said. “A Ford Ranger sold in the U.S. costs $44,000. But, by the time a Chinese consumer has the chance to buy one, it’s $70,000.”

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Seneca, said of the Chinese, “(We) cannot allow them to shut us out of their markets.”

Citing state-sponsored intellectual property theft in China, Graham added he has warned Boeing that, “One day a plane will be made in China that looks a lot like a 737.”

“All of us need to go to China to say, ‘If you don’t play by the rules, we’re going to kick you out,’ ” Graham said.

But the United States has to be careful in picking its trade fights, the congressmen said.

Scott worries a proposal to levy a tariff on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods could end up hurting U.S. exports if other countries retaliate in kind.

“I fear it will avert customers around the world from American products to our competitors, and we will not get those markets back,” Scott said.

U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, said a phased, targeted approach will help businesses like Element TV in Fairfield County, which has said it will shut down because of tariff pressures.

McClatchy has reported Mick Mulvaney, the former congressman from the area who now is Trump’s budget director, has lobbied for tariff exemptions that would help Element.

“I hope it will be staggered in to allow them to continue making TVs,” Norman said, urging faith in the president’s process.

“What (Trump) does will make sense,” he said, noting the growth in manufacturing jobs under the Trump administration. “He’s a business guy.“

But the administration’s trade policy is subject to change.

Even with a tentative agreement with the European Union, Trump told a Tuesday rally in West Virginia that he is considering a 25 percent tax on European-made cars.

But Norman said Trump’s rhetoric is part of his negotiating process.

“What he says and what actually happens are often two different things,” he said.

This story was originally published August 22, 2018 at 6:57 PM.