Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is opposing President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs after spending his career in Washington, DC, trashing the nation’s decades-long free trade policy for allowing multinational corporations to easily outsource American jobs to low-wage countries like China and Vietnam.
“As someone who helped lead the effort against disastrous unfettered free trade deals with China, Mexico, and other low-wage countries, I understand that we need trade policies that benefit American workers, not just the CEOs of large corporations,” Sanders said in a statement before using economic libertarian talking points to attack Trump’s recipricol tariffs:
And that includes targeted tariffs which can be a powerful tool in stopping corporations from outsourcing American jobs and factories abroad. Bottom line: We need a rational, well-thought-out and fair trade policy. Trump’s across-the-board tariffs are not the way to do it. We do not need a blanket and arbitrary sales tax on imported goods which will raise prices on products that the American people desperately need. We should be doing everything we can to lower prices, not make them incredibly higher. [Emphasis added]
Further, and most importantly, what Trump is doing is illegal and another step toward authoritarianism. In pushing his tariffs he is usurping the power of Congress and abrogating existing agreements under “emergency” provisions – when there are no real emergencies. In other words, he is incorporating more and more power into his own hands. That is unacceptable. [Emphasis added]
The statement is unusual for Sanders, as he has spent most of political career in Washington, DC, warning against the devastating impact that free trade has had on America’s working and middle class communities.
In 1993, then-Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) railed against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as nothing more than a massive outsourcing giveaway to multinational corporations looking to cut labor costs by sending American jobs to the lowest-wage countries.
“The NAFTA treaty is being supported by almost every multinational corporation in America, and these corporations are spending tens and tens of billions of dollars trying to influence the members of this body to vote for it,” Sanders said at the time.
Hellbound and Down 
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