Last week, President Trump took bold and long-overdue actions to put the American economy, American workers, and our national security first. On what he dubbed “Liberation Day,” the administration imposed reciprocal tariffs to rebalance the global trade order. These actions will liberate our great nation from the long train of abuses and usurpations by foreign countries that have taken advantage of American generosity for far too long.
As Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has explained, the current international trade system didn’t emerge from nowhere. In fact, it came from a concerted effort by the United States and our victorious allies after World War II to help war-torn Europe, Japan, and other similarly decimated countries rebuild their domestic economies. To complement efforts like the Marshall Plan, the U.S. helped set up a global trade system
that allowed these devastated countries to implement tariffs to help build their domestic manufacturing base, while giving them almost unfettered access to American markets— the largest at the time.
The system worked. Europe and Japan rebuilt. Many countries, like Germany, developed into manufacturing powerhouses. The problem is the trade system was never meaningfully revisited, even as the economies it was designed to help advanced. Instead of reexamining our trade policies, the system mostly expanded with the emergence of the World Trade Organization and the rise of China. This has left the United States at a competitive disadvantage to our global counterparts for decades.
The existing America-last trade system has allowed countries to use unfair trade practices to get ahead at the expense of hardworking Americans. The trade status quo has caused significant economic and national security problems, including the destruction of our domestic manufacturing base, the weakening of critical supply chains, and the hollowing out of the American middle class. We have also become increasingly reliant on trading partners for products essential to our national defense like drones, ammunition, and tanks. In short, foreign trade practices have created a national emergency.
While the economic and national security concerns are critically important, we must remember that America is so much more than just an economic zone or a marketplace of consumers. We are a nation—a nation of people, families, and communities. America is our home. Decades of these lopsided trade arrangements have hollowed out communities across middle America. While major metropolitan and financial centers have thrived, towns previously centered around good-paying jobs from factories have been ravaged. President Trump’s bold trade policies are designed to reverse this decline and reinvigorate these forgotten communities.
President Trump’s tariffs are a direct and proportional reaction to these long-standing and disastrous problems—and his use of emergency powers to implement them is well justified. By correcting trade imbalances and one-sided trading relationships, we are leveling the playing field for American workers. According to a recent Harvard-Harris poll, almost sixty percent of Americans support President Trump’s efforts to reset our trade and tariff policies. These tariffs will reinvigorate domestic manufacturing, bolster agricultural supply chains, and boost our defense-industrial sector–all to the benefit of the American middle class.
These end results will not be immediate, and like all disruptions, there may be temporary discomfort on the horizon. However, I’m confident this period of short-term pain will lead to long-term gains for Missouri and all of America. While the stock market has been tumultuous, we have also seen a wave of job-creating new investments in the United States totaling more than three trillion dollars this year alone. One thing is clear: the days of American workers being ripped off are over. President Trump’s America First trade agenda will create a renaissance of domestic manufacturing and create good-paying jobs–ushering in a new golden age for American workers.
Represents Missouri’s fourth congressional district. He sits on the House Appropriations Committee and the House Small Business Committee, where he Chairs the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations.
