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Floor Speech
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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise to speak about President Trump's costly trade policies and the damage that it is causing American manufacturers, businesses, and a family budget. Tariffs will cost an average household at least $2,300 in the year 2025. And according to an analysis by the Syracuse Post Standard newspaper, ground beef, chicken breast, butter, milk, and more products are being made more expensive this year than last year.
In fact, ground beef alone is 20 percent more expensive, an average of $5.98 per pound. The Joint Economic Committee found that ground beef is at the highest price point since the data first became available in the 1980s.
A recent survey of the Association of Washington Businesses found that 48 percent of businesses in my State have experienced the impact from tariffs.
Mr. President, I would like to enter the survey into the Record: https://www.awb.org/wp-content/uploads/AWB_Employer_Survey_ 041725.pdf.
Of those businesses' studies and analysis, 76 percent say tariffs have raised their costs. Forty-five percent say tariffs have disrupted their supply chain. Twenty-one percent have had customers cancel orders. More than 1/3 of the companies already raised prices for customers. Fifteen percent are laying off people and making plans to do so more.
So, Mr. President, I rise to say that this important information needs to be considered by my colleagues. We need to be more involved in this trade debate.
American manufacturers are also seeing higher input prices, driving up the cost of production. More than half of all goods imported into the United States are manufacturing inputs, and they have highly integrated supply chains--supply chains that now are being made weaker. Tariffs are a tax on those products in your supply chain--think about aluminum or steel or other components--a tax that economists will tell you is ultimately going to be borne by the consumers.
Take one company, a Japanese-based parts manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy in June, Marelli. It was hit with an additional burden of 25-percent tariffs on the auto parts. Why should you care in the United States about this Japanese company? Because it is a major supplier of car interiors, lighting parts for various cars, like Chrysler and Dodge and Jeep vehicles built in the United States of America.
So automakers are on a roller coaster, and major car companies have reported the tariffs are expected to reduce their annual earnings by billions of dollars. And then what happens? Would you see the rise of costs domestically? Experts are predicting $3,000 per domestic vehicle and potentially $10,000 more for an imported vehicle.
It is not just autos; the Wall Street Journal reported that John Deere is considering production changes and price increases for farm equipment because of an additional $500 million cost in tariffs. And according to the Copper Development Association, copper consumption for AI data centers is expected to jump to an outlandish demand, but building AI centers will cost more in the United States than any other country because of the Trump tariffs. So we know that we are building an AI infrastructure, but why are we making tariffs put that at risk? And just yesterday, the President threatened more tariffs on pharmaceutical products.
So, Mr. President, it has been 170 days since President Trump took office promising to bring back U.S. manufacturing by imposing steep tariffs, and it has been 90 days since the President promised we would see 90 deals in 90 days. I am not sure where those deals are. I am not sure whose deals he is talking about, but I know this: We are now 90 days later, and it seems that we have had all the pain of higher prices, and it seems that we haven't seen any comprehensive trade deals.
So we cannot have an endless summer of tariffs and price increases. We need, as a body here, to make sure that we are holding the President accountable on the trade turmoil that is hurting small businesses. Every day, families face higher grocery prices trying to buy a new or a used car or a new home.
And yesterday, the President also sent a letter to 14 countries. Today, he sent seven letters and basically threatened higher tariffs. In fact, one of those countries, South Korea, is a country that we have had a close partnership and been an ally with for decades. I visited them and our American troops in South Korea and have seen them guarding the demilitarized zone--DMZ--with North Korea. And most of the U.S. tariffs on South Korea were eliminated or significantly reduced under a trade agreement passed by this body: the U.S. free trade agreement with South Korea.
So the KORUS agreement was concluded in 2007 and ratified by the Senate in 2011. So why are we overturning with an ally that we work together to defend our interests in the region? Why are we tariffing them when we passed a free trade agreement here in the U.S. Senate?
So I know the President thinks he is going to get comprehensive trade agreements. We haven't seen them, but we have seen the costs go up. It is time to say no more extensions. It is time for Congress to get involved in this issue. It is time for all of us to say the tariff chaos is hurting small business.
That is the issue. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 97 percent of U.S. importers are small businesses with fewer than 500 employees. They deserve to have this chaos stopped.
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