CBS "Face the Nation" interviews during 2018: on Free Trade

Joni Ernst: Worth the pain of tariffs to get a better deal with China

SENATOR JONI ERNST: I am hopeful that we will not need another subsidy program for our farmers. Our farmers would much rather grow their goods and make sure that they are getting out to the rest of the world, absolutely. But I've done a number of farmer roundtables all across the state of Iowa. And at the last one I held, a middle-aged farmer stood up and said, "I understand why President Trump is doing this. However, what I don't understand is why someone didn't do it sooner." So they understand.

Q: The pain is tolerable for now?

ERNST: The pain is tolerable for now. I want to see these trade deals done. I'd rather see them done sooner, rather than later, but we have to get a good deal with China or it's all for naught.

John Kasich: Tariffs lead to acrimony among friends & going it alone

KASICH: Well, because there's also unanimity among Republicans, Democrats, all the people that study these things, you get into trade wars--when you take nationalism as an approach to your economy--it can lead to war. And we know what happened when we imposed all these barriers on people in the past. The economy slowed down, people paid higher prices. And then, beyond that, it increases acrimony among our friends. I mean, we're punishing our friends. If they were cheating, that's one thing. But they slapped this on under a phony excuse. We're going alone on that. We didn't get in the Pacific trade agreement. We're going it alone. It's not America first. It's America alone. And I think it's just not good policy. In fact, it borders on dangerous, in my opinion.

John Kasich: Tariffs slow down the economy and hurt 40 million jobs

KASICH: The first thing is that the industry is modernizing. They are more competitive. We have 40 million Americans that work in trade-related jobs. Most of the exports activities in this country are done by small and medium-sized businesses. What this is going to do is cost consumers, slow down the economy. It's not prudent. It's not smart. And those very steelworkers will find out that things will cost more and what they will buy will not be good. So, I hope the administration will back away from this policy.

Q: Have you calculated what the cost to Ohio would be if Canada, Mexico, and the EU go ahead with these tariffs?

KASICH: It's not just my state that's involved here. It's our nation. It has significant consequences for us here at home, not only just economically, but geopolitically.

Steve Mnuchin: 3-part agenda: tax & regulatory relief; free & fair trade

MNUCHIN: Actually, I said our expectation is that we don't think there will be a trade war. Our objective is to continue to have discussions with China. We want to have free and fair, reciprocal trade. We're just looking for our companies and our workers to have a level playing field. And right now, we have about $500 billion of goods that we buy from China and they buy about $135 billion from us.

Q: This has caused such nervousness in the markets--

MNUCHIN: The markets have had a lot of volatility in general. The market is still up a tremendous amount since the election. The tax plan is kicking in. Our regulatory relief is kicking in. Trade has always been the third part of our agenda. But let me just put this in perspective. If we can open up their $10 trillion economy for us to compete fairly, this is one of the single biggest opportunities long term for U.S. companies.