U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, has issued a statement regarding the Senate’s upcoming votes on resolutions to end national emergency tariff authorities.
“I’m approaching this week’s votes on tariffs the same way I did earlier this year, and the same way I have my entire career.
“Protectionists in Washington insist that the past several months have vindicated the policy of indiscriminate trade war against both close allies and strategic adversaries. But Kentuckians are especially well-equipped to sort the bluster from the truth.
“New trade barriers imposed this year have made it harder to sustain the supply chains that let thousands of Kentuckians build cars and appliances in the Commonwealth. Retaliatory tariffs on American products have turned agricultural income upside down for many of Kentucky’s nearly 70,000 family farms. Bourbon has been caught in the crossfire from Day One. And consumers are paying higher prices across the board as the true costs of trade barriers fall inevitably on them.
“Protectionists eagerly celebrate the revenue from tariff duties. But they don’t talk nearly as much about how much of that revenue they’ll spend protecting American growers and producers from the avoidable harm of their policies.
“Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive. The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule. And no cross-eyed reading of Reagan will reveal otherwise. This week, I will vote in favor of resolutions to end emergency tariff authorities.”
The statement highlights concerns about how recent tariffs have affected manufacturing supply chains, farm incomes, bourbon exports, and consumer prices in Kentucky. McConnell reiterated his opposition to broad-based tariffs and indicated his support for ending emergency tariff powers.
