Tariff the threats President-elect Donald Trump voiced this week across global stocks turned on US retail executives warn of risk of higher prices.
Former President George W. Bush, who congratulate Trump has not commented on Trump’s remarks since the day of the election, keeping a low public profile. As recently as 2021, however, Bush criticized trade barriers, lamenting that the Trump administration was “isolationist, protectionist.”
Trump’s support for tariffs and skepticism about global trade is a departure from previous Republican presidents over the past four decades.
Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and his father George HW Bush worshiped free trade, although in some cases they introduced policies similar to Trump’s protectionist proposals.
“Trump is not talking about free trade,” said Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University and former top economist at the Council of Economic Advisers under Reagan. “Trump’s rhetoric is completely different.”
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, the Trump transition team said his tariff plans would boost the U.S. economy.
“During his first term, President Trump imposed tariffs China this created employment, encouraged investment and did not cause inflation. President Trump will work quickly to fix and restore an economy that puts American workers first by restructuring American jobs, reducing inflation, raising real wages, lowering taxes, reducing regulations and unleashing American energy,” Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
Trump Monday night he said Mexico and Canada would be slapped with a 25% tariff on all goods coming into the United States until those countries take action to curb illegal immigration and drug flooding across the border.
For China, Trump said he would impose an additional 10% tariff on products coming into the US
The declarations of trade hostility echoed Trump’s campaign vows.
Trump spoke at the Economic Club of Chicago in October called “tariff” “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”.
Trump said the 2,000% tariffs would protect key US industries such as auto manufacturing. In the absence of tariffs, Trump added, “it will be the end of Michigan.”
The tone of pro-protectionist policies contrasts with the rhetoric expressed by Trump’s Republican predecessors.
Reagan, who served in the final years of the Cold War in the 1980s, championed free trade in a battle against authoritarian adversaries abroad and perceived demagogues at home.
“Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies,” then-President Ronald Reagan. he said In 1988, after signing a free trade agreement with Canada.
“We should be wary of demagogues willing to declare a trade war against our friends — undermining our economy, our national security and the entire free world — all while cynically waving the American flag,” Reagan added.
The elder Bush, Reagan’s vice president, took a similar stance on trade.
As president, George HW Bush sought to improve trade relations with China, and helped establish the World Trade Organization through a shared set of regulations aimed at facilitating global trade.
In the early 1990s, Bush negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, a trade agreement between the US, Mexico and Canada.
“Free trade across the Americas is an idea whose time has come,” Bush he said At an event to promote NAFTA in December 1992.
“The epic struggle of this century between totalitarianism and democracy is over. It is dead. Democracy has prevailed,” he added. “Today, around the world we see a revolution of hope and courage, fueled by ordinary people’s desire for freedom and a better life.”
The agreement was ratified under Bush’s successor, President Bill Clinton.
During his first presidential campaign in 2016, Trump strongly criticized NAFTA for allowing manufacturers to relocate factories overseas and lay off US workers.
Just weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Trump described NAFTA as “the worst deal ever passed in this country.”
Former President Ronald W. Reagan spoke at a fundraiser in 1986.
Dirck Halstead/Getty Images, FILE
Like Reagan and his father, George W. Bush championed free trade while in office. Since then, he has continued to advocate for global trade and oppose trade barriers.
“Since World War II, America has fostered and benefited from the global advancement of free markets, the strength of democratic alliances, and the advancement of free societies,” George W. Bush. he said in 2017
“Free nations are less likely to threaten and fight each other. And free trade helped make America a world economic power,” added George W. Bush.
Despite their rhetoric, Trump’s predecessors within the Republican Party have introduced some policies this week that resemble his own proposals.
Reagan imposed 45% tariffs on Japanese motorcycles and 100% tariffs on some Japanese electronics in an attempt to counter the nation’s economic growth and strengthen domestic industry. Reagan placed an annual quota on the allowable number of cars imported from Japan.
“There was a big gap between the rhetoric and the reality,” Hanke, a former Reagan administration economist, told ABC News.
For his part, George W. Bush tried to protect the US steel industry by imposing tariffs on some steel imports. Facing backlash from the World Trade Organization and threats of retaliation from other countries, he removed the tariffs after 18 months.
