Politics

Sherrod Brown Says He’s ‘Hopeful’ About Trump’s New Trade Deal With China

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Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio expressed optimism about President Donald Trump’s new trade agreement with China, on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, but said he’s still waiting to see how things turn out.

Host Jake Tapper asked Brown for his opinion on the deal and Brown was cautiously optimistic.

“I can’t tell. I think it’s important to step back and understand why all of this with China — and that is that half the world’s steel capacity is in China,” he replied. “Half of the world’s aluminum smelting capacity is in China. They’ve had a history, decades of cheating on trade rules.”

Trump reached a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping Saturday night in exchange for not imposing any new tariffs on Chinese goods.

Xi agreed to begin buying more agricultural products from American farmers, as well as more industrial and energy products. The White House also said the deal addresses intellectual property concerns and will have China make a number of concessions on cybersecurity and property theft.

“The whole point of tariffs is that tariffs are a temporary tool to reach a negotiation and to make change with Chinese-U.S. relationships and what we’re doing with trade policy,” Brown added.

Brown said despite his reservations he’s pleased with the early stages of the deal.

“I’m hopeful,” he said. “It’s not clear to me yet that the president’s done this right, but I’m hopeful from the early stages of this.”

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