This is from an interview by Jake Tapper with presidential candidate Kamala Harris:
TAPPER: President Trump, as you know, slapped higher tariffs on Chinese exports on Friday morning, dialing up pressure for a trade deal with the Chinese.
HARRIS: Yes.
TAPPER: Now, your leader, Chuck Schumer, tweeted earlier this week saying -- quote -- "Hang tough on China, President Trump. Don't back down."
Do you agree with Leader Schumer that President Trump is doing the right thing when it comes to the Chinese?
HARRIS: I think that part of the failure of this administration on foreign policy as general matter is that this president and this administration have failed to understand that we are stronger when we work with our allies on every issue, China included.
TAPPER: China is an ally?
HARRIS: No, meaning working with our allies to address China, in terms of the threat that it presents to our economy, the threat it presents to American workers and American industries.
But we -- but, instead, this president seems to believe and has a preference for conducting trade policy, economic policy, foreign policy by tweet. And that's irresponsible. It is a display of a president who thinks that -- apparently, that unilateral action is better than working with the friends to address issues that not only impact our country, but impact the globe.
[09:05:00]
And I think it puts us in a weaker position.
TAPPER: As a more broad manner, President Trump, on the campaign trail 2015-'16 and as president, says, trade deals in this country, by Democrat presidents and by Republican presidents, have been too tilted towards helping corporations and helping Wall Street and too tilted against the middle class and the manufacturing sector.
Do you disagree with that premise?
HARRIS: I believe that there is no question that, over many decades, the rules have been written in a way that have been to the exclusion of lifting up the middle class and working people in America and working families in America.
And, in fact, that's why I'm proposing that one of the things that we do to address that is that we reform the tax code in a way that we'll give middle-class working families that are making less than $100,000 a year a $6,000 tax credit that they can receive it up to $500 a month.
TAPPER: But on the subject of trade, it doesn't sound like you disagree with the president on his premise, on his general argument that the middle class keeps getting screwed by these trade deals, and he's trying to renegotiate better deals.
HARRIS: I believe that we have got to have policy that better protects American workers and American industries.
I believe very strongly that we have to have policies that understand that, as it relates to the issue of trade, as it relates to the issue of various countries, including China, which we just talked about, that we have to supply and equip the American worker with the skills and the resources that they need to thrive, not only survive, but thrive.
TAPPER: Trade has been drawing some dividing lines in the Democratic field, when it comes to NAFTA, for example.
Bernie Sanders, one of your opponents, attacked Joe Biden, another one of your opponents, last week, saying -- quote -- "I helped lead the fight against NAFTA. Biden voted for NAFTA."
Who is right on NAFTA, Biden or Sanders?
HARRIS: Well, I'm not going to choose between the two of them.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: But I will tell you...
TAPPER: Well, would you have voted for NAFTA?
HARRIS: I would not have voted for NAFTA, and because I believe that we can do a better job to protect American workers.
I also believe that we need to do a better job in terms of thinking about the priorities that should be more apparent now perhaps than they were there, which are issues like climate, the climate crisis, and what we need to do to build into these trade agreements.
I thought her answer to the question about how best to address concerns with China's trade practices was pretty good in terms of its condemnation of the Trump administration's approach. Tapper put Chuck Schumer's "hang tough" message out there, and she clearly moved away from the Schumer statement and towards working with allies, something that is not happening to a great extent right now. It's not clear what Harris sees as "tough," or how she views tariffs, but it seems like she clearly rejects unilateralism.
The rest of her comments are a bit vague. She wants to "better protect American workers and American industries," and "to supply and equip the American worker with the skills and the resources that they need to thrive." That could mean a lot of different things (e.g. reforming the tax code, as she mentions, or using tariffs).
And saying she would not have voted for NAFTA doesn't really mean much at this point. The question is, what kind of trade agreements or trade policy does she want going forward? She talks about "issues like climate, the climate crisis, and what we need to do to build into these trade agreements." This sounds like it would fit very nicely with EU trade policy, so does this mean a US-EU trade deal would be on her administration's agenda?
Normally, I don't expect much substantive discussion of trade policy during a campaign, but given the importance of trade policy these days, maybe we will get more exchanges like the one above, hopefully with even more specifics.
