“It’s President Trump’s Strong Position that has Resulted in Negotiations with Chinese Leadership”
U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senator Steve Daines joined Fox & Friends First today to discuss Treasury Secretary Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s upcoming trade talks with China as well as President Trump’s commitment to protecting U.S. interests abroad.
Watch the full interview HERE.
Daines praised Bessent and Greer’s work to reduce trade barriers with China and recalled his own recent meetings with Chinese leaders:
I’m very proud of the great work that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and our U.S. trade rep Jamieson Greer are doing, fighting for American interests. I met with some of the Chinese leaders in late March talking about what we can do to work through some of the differences we have in trading policies. This needs to de-escalate, as Secretary Bessent said, and I hope the structure we put in place here in Geneva this weekend, where the talks can begin to sort out our differences. Keep in mind that the United States and China are the two largest economies in the world. They represent about 42 percent of the world’s GDP. And at the moment, we’re at a triple-digit trade war. As Secretary Bessent said, it’s time to de-escalate and start to talk, to resolve the differences between these very large economies, the largest in the world. And we’ve got to address these tariff and non-tariff barriers the Chinese have had that have prohibited access for American companies into the China market as well as affecting certainly producers here in America as we compete to keep manufacturing jobs here in the United States.
…When I was in Beijing in late March, I met with Premier Li Qiang. I also met with their Vice -Premier, He Lifeng. And Vice-Premier He Lifeng will be meeting with Secretary Bessent and USTR Jamieson Greer in Geneva. He is one of the top leaders in China. He is really their economic czar. He is the right person for Secretary Bessent and Jamieson Greer to be engaged with. They’re going to have to lay out the differences on the table, but it looks like Secretary Bessent has said that they want to first start by cooling things off, maybe a de-escalation in these triple digit tariffs as step one, which is a precursor then to talking about what needs to be done to resolve the differences. Look, we run about a $300 billion trade deficit with China. We also have opportunities for American farmers and ranchers that want to sell their beef, their wheat, their barley into that huge Chinese market. 1.4 billion consumers. So there’s opportunities for American manufacturers, American agriculture, but I’m really glad to see President Trump fighting hard for American interests and standing up for our great country.
Daines emphasized that President Trump’s strength is bringing China to the negotiating table:
The Chinese economy is struggling. They’re probably growing close to 2 percent, not 5 percent in their GDP. And we’re seeing the same reports that potentially millions of Chinese who have lost their jobs because they export a lot of goods to the United States. So these tariffs are putting a big bite and hurt right now on the Chinese economy. And again, I go back to Ronald Reagan’s doctrine of peace through strength. It’s President Trump’s strong position that has resulted now in negotiations beginning in Geneva with Chinese leadership.
Daines highlighted the need for market access for farmers and ranchers:
This is something I worked on hard back in 2017. We opened up the Chinese market to US beef. It’s the second largest export market for beef in the world. We shipped $1.6 billion of U.S. beef into China. And so this is a really important market and that’ll be I’m sure one of the topics discussed.
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Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins