In the debate on Wednesday involving 10 of the 20 Democratic candidates, trade barely came up. Given how much activity, shall we say, there has been on trade under the Trump administration, that was a bit of a surprise. Last night, though, in the debate involving the other 10 candidates, there was a question on trade:
HOLT: We're going to turn -- we're going to turn to the issue of trade now, if we can. Last night, we asked the candidates on this stage to name the greatest geopolitical threat facing the U.S. Four of them mentioned China. U.S. businesses say China steals our intellectual property and party leaders on both sides accuse China of manipulating their currency to keep the cost of goods artificially low.
I want to ask this to Senator Bennet, to start off with. How would you stand up to China?
That's not a terrible question, but it's not a great one, in the sense that it's easy to come up with an answer that sounds substantive without saying much of anything. Here's what the candidates who got a chance to answer said:
BENNET: Well, I think that, first of all, the biggest -- the biggest threat to our national security right now is Russia, not China. And, second, on China, we've got -- because of what they've done with our election.
In China, I think the president has been right to push back on China, but has done it in completely the wrong way. We should mobilize the entire rest of the world, who all have a shared interest in pushing back on China's mercantilist trade policies, and I think we can do that.
...
HOLT: Mr. Yang, let me bring you in on this, on the issue of China. You have expressed a lot of concerns about technology and taking jobs. Are you worried about China? And if so, how would you stand up against it?
YANG: Well, I just want to agree that I think Russia is our greatest geopolitical threat, because they have been hacking our democracy successfully and they've been laughing their asses off about it for the last couple of years. So we should focus on that before we start worrying about other threats.
Now, China, they do pirate our intellectual property. It's a massive problem. But the tariffs and the trade war are just punishing businesses and producers and workers on both sides.
I met with a farmer in Iowa who said he spent six years building up a buying relationship in China that’s now disappeared and gone forever. And the beneficiaries have not been American workers or people in China. It’s been Southeast Asia and other producers that have then stepped into the void. So we need to crack down on Chinese malfeasance in the trade relationship, but the tariffs and the trade war are the wrong way to go.
HOLT: All right, Mayor Buttigieg...
HOLT: How would you -- how would you stand up against China?
BUTTIGIEG: I mean, first of all, we've got to recognize that the China challenge really is a serious one. This is not something to dismiss or wave away. And if you look at what China is doing, they're using technology for the perfection of dictatorship.
But their fundamental economic model isn't going to change because of some tariffs. I live in the industrial Midwest. Folks who aren't in the shadow of a factory are somewhere near a soy field where I live. And manufacturers, and especially soy farmers, are hurting.
Tariffs are taxes. And Americans are going to pay on average $800 more a year because of these tariffs. Meanwhile, China is investing so that they could soon be able to run circles around us in artificial intelligence. And this president is fixated on the China relationship as if all that mattered was the export balance on dishwashers. We've got a much bigger issue on our hands.
But at a moment when their authoritarian model is being held up as an alternative to ours because ours looks so chaotic compared to theirs right now because of our internal divisions, the biggest thing we've got to do is invest in our own domestic competitiveness. If we disinvest...
HOLT: All right, Mayor, thank you.
BUTTIGIEG: ... in our own infrastructure, education, we are never going to be able to compete. And if we really want to be an alternative, a democratic alternative, we actually have to demonstrate that we care about democratic values at home and around the world.
Those answers are fine, but fairly superficial. It was easy to answer this question with generalities. I'm glad the candidates don't like tariffs, but I'm not sure exactly what they would do instead with regard to China.
I wish we could get more specific questions on trade, such as: Would you maintain the tariffs that the Trump administration has imposed on steel and aluminum imports under Section 232? With which countries, if any, would you negotiate new trade agreements first? Should there be any provisions on biologic drugs in the USMCA? Should Congress take back some of the power it has delegated to the executive branch on trade?
