Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) encouraged Democrats to change their outlook on tariffs, stating that levies are not “always bad” as President Trump made good on his campaign tariff threats this week.
“Fellow Democrats, the party needs to rethink all the anti-tariff absolutism. I’m a Rust Belt Democrat from swingy Western PA—where lousy trade deals like NAFTA stripped us for parts,” Deluzio wrote in a Friday statement on the social platform X.
“Democrats need to break free from the zombie horde of neoliberal economists who think tariffs are always bad,” he added.
On Tuesday Trump administration enacted previously delayed tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, imposing a 25 percent levy on all imports from both nations. But the president quickly reversed course, signing off on some exemptions and an additional pause.
Analysts have warned of the dangers of Trump’s tariff policies, including higher prices for consumers and an increase in inflation. But the president has maintained that temporary pain is worth the end result.
In a Friday New York Times op-ed, Deluzio outlined how tariffs, in his view, can benefit working class voters Democrats are looking to regain support from after the past election cycle.
“Mr. Trump’s tariff approach has been chaotic and inconsistent. There’s no doubt about that. But the answer isn’t to condemn tariffs across the board,” he wrote.
“That risks putting the Democrats even further out of touch with the hard-working people who used to be the lifeblood of the party — people like my constituents,” he continued.
Many Democrats have called on the president to retract tariffs, calling the move “unproductive.”
“The wellbeing of American workers, families, and businesses should never be gambled for the sake of scoring political points,” a group of a nearly a dozen Democrats wrote last month.
Deluzio on Friday suggested the party “embrace” tariffs as an industrial strategy to “revitalize” American manufacturing, citing the absence of home grown products due to outsourcing from China and Vietnam.
“Tariffs are one of a few tools that can break this cycle: They force mercantilist countries to increase their domestic consumption of what they produce because they can no longer dump it in the United States,” he wrote.
He touted the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act as pathways to increase American manufacturing while urging President Trump to reassess the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
“Instead of just hitting Mexico with tariffs — if and when Mr. Trump makes up his mind about them — we should fix the agreement he signed with Mexico to force companies seeking its benefits to agree to higher wages and stronger labor rights enforcement, to pay for their pollution costs in Mexico and to stop Chinese firms from using it to obtain duty-free access to the United States,” he wrote.
“Western Pennsylvanians know how important it is to get this right,” he continued.
Deluzio encouraged Democrats to lean into Trump’s mindset on economic advantages through tariffs without delay to regain the attention of voters.
“For the last decade, Mr. Trump has capitalized on voters’ justifiable anger on bad trade deals, but his administration is too undisciplined to deliver the relief Americans need,” he wrote. “That is why Democrats must fight hard for smart tariffs and other trade policies that will deliver good-paying jobs and restore America’s manufacturing leadership.”
