Both Ohio senators say President Trump's plan to impose a 25 percent tariff on all steel imports is broader than they would prefer.
is urging the president to narrow the scope of his proposal. He says while an across-the-board tariff would be good for producers of raw steel, 鈥淚t could have a negative impact on our economy on Ohio workers because we have a lot of steel processors, a lot of companies that do things with steel.鈥�
Many economists say a broad tariff would have severe consequences for many U.S. companies, like automakers. , has a different take:
鈥淔rankly, I just don't buy into that.鈥�
Like Portman, Brown says he鈥檇 also prefer a more targeted tariff that focuses on Chinese steel-dumping, but he says the president's plan would do more to help the auto industry than hurt it.
鈥淚f we don't enforce now and draw a line now, we're going to see the Chinese in auto component manufacturing working its way up to bigger auto component manufacturing working its way up to auto assembly. 鈥�
The president hasn't yet said whether his plan would exempt countries like Canada, which is the primary source of U.S. imported steel.
