Standing Against President Trump's Trade War

Governor Kathy Hochul today addressed President Trump’s trade war, which has now led to Canadian tariffs on billions of dollars of American goods. These tariffs are expected to drive up costs for thousands of New Yorkers, prevent the state from building more housing and damage the livelihoods of farmers, manufacturers and working New Yorkers across the state. Governor Hochul called on New York’s congressional Republicans to oppose the President’s trade war.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 I have a statement I want to deliver first. At 11:01 a.m., Canada imposed tariffs of up to 50 percent on billions and billions of dollars worth of American goods. Why? To retaliate against an idiotic trade war with one of our greatest allies launched by Donald Trump. Once again, New York small farmers and businesses and working families are caught in the crossfire, and it's insane.

Remember a few years back when Donald Trump was running for president? Remember how he promised to lower costs on day one? Not exactly happening. Americans are seeing the price of everything go up. He also promised to cut electric bills by 50 percent. Electric bills — gas and electric — are going up to the highest they've been in 14 years.

Tariffs are a tax on the American people, plain and simple, an additional cost of being an American, of being a New Yorker because of these tariffs. It is the exact opposite of what was promised, that a lot of people bought into, in electing Donald Trump president. But now we see exactly how this is bearing out. Now, the Supreme Court has already ruled that the President doesn't have power — does not have the authority to impose tariffs without congressional approval. I've called on the federal government to return the $13.5 billion that New Yorkers, through higher prices, have overpaid in additional costs from those tariffs. That should be what Washington focuses on, not finding loopholes to put new tariffs in place, yet here we are again. Those tariffs strain every part of our relationship, our business partnership with Canada. They destabilize our economy and make it impossible for businesses to plan for the future.

And as someone who grew up in Buffalo, right on the Canadian border, I know how critical trade is for the economy of both sides of that border, whether it's the Ford stamping plant in my hometown that also had a facility right across the border and sent component parts back to our facilities in Western New York — that trade relationship is critical for thousands and thousands of jobs that New Yorkers rely on. And our farmers and our manufacturers depend on materials they source from Canada — largest sources of wood and aluminum are coming from Canada. This is going to jack up the cost of building every single new building, every house, thwarting our efforts to build more housing in the great State of New York. And also, our farmers depend on access to Canadian markets to sell their products. But basically now, our largest export of New York State wine was to Canada. It is down — now down about 91%.

These are real impacts that cannot be ignored. They cannot be swept under the rug. And so now, after all of seeing what's happened over the last year, instead of trying to solve the problem, they've decided to escalate, make it even worse, make it more expensive to live in this country. And they're slamming the door on relationships with our most important trading partners, especially Canada. That drives up the cost for everyone and threatens the livelihood of millions of New Yorkers.

Now, what's this all about? Settling personal scores? I think so. I think so. I think the President at one time had hotel properties in Vancouver and Toronto that didn't go so well. Maybe there's something there. I don't know. Something's going on here. But he's ranting and raving on social media and pretending to care about working Americans, and what does he do? He somehow is able to make $2.2 billion, an obscene amount of money, while he's sitting in the Oval Office. Shocking. And taking the time to rename a lake. Read my lips. It's Lake Ontario. I'll say it again. It's Lake Ontario. Gosh, we need a federal government that finally supports what we're trying so hard to do here in New York, support economic growth and opportunity, and actually, actually lower costs for families.

So at this point, I'm calling on the seven Republican members of Congress who claim to represent their residents to stand up for the people who put them in office and join me in demanding that President Trump ends this senseless, needless, crazy trade war with Canada and across the globe and refund the American people, refund New Yorkers the money that they are owed. We demand nothing less.

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