Transcript - Remarks: Donald Trump Signs Proclamation on Steel and Aluminum Tariffs - March 8, 2018 | Factba.se

Donald Trump

00:00:00 - 00:00:25 (25 sec)

Well thank you very much, everybody. I am honored to be here with our incredible steel and aluminum workers. And you are truly the backbone of America. You know that. Very special people. I've known you and people that are very closely related to you for a long time. You know that. I think it's probably the reason I'm here. So I want to thank you.

Donald Trump

00:00:25 - 00:00:42 (17 sec)

I also want to thank Secretary Mnuchin, Ambassador Lighthizer, Secretary Ross, Peter Navarro, Mike Pence, our great vice president. They've worked so hard on getting this going and getting it done.

Donald Trump

00:00:42 - 00:01:02 (20 sec)

And people are starting to realize how important it is. We have to protect and build our steel and aluminum industries while, at the same time, showing great flexibility and cooperation toward those that are really friends of ours, both on a trade basis and a military basis.

Donald Trump

00:01:02 - 00:01:13 (10 sec)

A strong steel and aluminum industry are vital to our national security. Absolutely vital. Steel is steel. You don't have steel. You don't have a country.

Donald Trump

00:01:13 - 00:01:38 (26 sec)

Our industries have been targeted for years and years. Decades, in fact, by unfair foreign trade practices, leading to the shuttered plants and mills, the laying-off of millions of workers, and the decimation of entire communities. And that's going to stop, right? That's going to stop.

Donald Trump

00:01:38 - 00:02:00 (22 sec)

This is not merely an economic disaster, but it's a security disaster. We want to build our ships, we want to build our planes, we want to build our military equipment with steel, with aluminum from our country. And now we're finally taking action to correct this long-overdue problem. It's a travesty.

Donald Trump

00:02:00 - 00:02:20 (20 sec)

Today, I'm defending America's national security by placing tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum. We will have a 25 percent tariff on foreign steel, and a 10 percent tariff on foreign aluminum.

Donald Trump

00:02:20 - 00:02:41 (21 sec)

When the product comes across our borders, it's a process called dumping, and they dumped more than -- at any time, on any nation anywhere in the world. And it drove our plants out of business, it drove our factories out of business.

Donald Trump

00:02:41 - 00:02:52 (11 sec)

And we want a lot of steel coming into our country, but we want it to be fair and we want our workers to be protected and we want, frankly, our companies to be protected.

Donald Trump

00:02:52 - 00:03:07 (16 sec)

By contrast, we will not place any new tax on product made in the USA. So there's no tax if a product is made in the USA. You don't want to pay tax? Bring your plant to the USA. There's no tax.

Donald Trump

00:03:07 - 00:03:32 (25 sec)

Which we will benefit from the massive tax cuts that we have in place. We have passed the largest tax cut plan in the country's history. And that has caused, really, tremendous success between that and regulation cutting. And I think, maybe, regulation cutting every bit as much. And we have a long way to go on regulations, but we've already cut more than any president in history.

Donald Trump

00:03:32 - 00:03:59 (27 sec)

So we're urging all companies to buy American. That's what we want. Buy American. The action that I'm taking today follows a nine-month investigation by the Department of Commerce, Secretary Ross, documenting a growing crisis in our steel and aluminum production that threatens the security of our nation. And also is bad for us economically and with jobs.

Donald Trump

00:03:59 - 00:04:14 (15 sec)

The American steel and aluminum industry has been ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices. It's really an assault on our country. It's been an assault. They know better than anybody.

Donald Trump

00:04:14 - 00:04:29 (15 sec)

Other countries have added production capacity that far exceeds demand. And flooded the world market with cheap metal that is subsidized by foreign governments, creating jobs for their country and taking away jobs from our country.

Donald Trump

00:04:29 - 00:04:47 (18 sec)

I've been talking about this for a long time. A lot longer than my political career. I've been talking about this for many years. For example, it takes China about one month to produce as much steel as they produce in the United States in an entire year.

Donald Trump

00:04:47 - 00:05:11 (25 sec)

Because we've closed down so much capacity. Plants closed all over the United States, and some plants -- I see massive plants from 40 years ago, and they're working now in a little corner of the building. Well, we're going to get those buildings open again and producing again. And that's going to be a great thing for our country. And this is only the first stop.

Donald Trump

00:05:11 - 00:05:40 (28 sec)

Aluminum imports now account for more than 90 percent of the primary American demand over the last two decades. Nearly two thirds of American raw steel companies have gone out of business. More than one third of the steel jobs have disappeared. Six primary aluminum smelters, which is a big deal, have permanently shut down since just 2012.

Donald Trump

00:05:40 - 00:06:07 (28 sec)

The actions we're taking today are not a matter of choice; they're a matter of necessity for our security. We're already seeing the national security benefits of this order. Yesterday, in anticipation that we'd be here today, U.S. Steel announced it's reopening a mill in Illinois, a big one, and recalling 500 workers immediately. That's going on all over the country.

Donald Trump

00:06:07 - 00:06:24 (17 sec)

And by the way, it went on with solar panels, which we did three months ago, and washing machines, where they were dumping washing machines all over our country, and now, they're expanding plants to make washing machines. We put the tax on. A lot of you were here.

Donald Trump

00:06:24 - 00:06:56 (31 sec)

A skilled, trained workforce in steel is a crucial element of America's national security, and must be protected. After the signing of this proclamation, Century Aluminum in Kentucky -- Century's a great company -- will be investing over $100 million to restart and upgrade their idled military-grade, high-quality aluminum production, which is also critically important to our national security.

Donald Trump

00:06:56 - 00:07:20 (24 sec)

That's 150,000 additional tons of aluminum. And think of it: This is a closed plant, and now, they're doing 150,000 tons' production, and an additional 300 workers, and ultimately, many more hired in the great state of Kentucky, a package of sometimes $90,000 per worker.

Donald Trump

00:07:20 - 00:07:48 (28 sec)

Our greatest presidents all understood, from Washington, to Lincoln, to Jackson, to Teddy Roosevelt that America must have a strong, vibrant and independent manufacturing base -- has to have it. President McKinley, who felt very, very strongly about this -- The country was very, very successful. We actually operated out of cash flow, if you can believe it.

Donald Trump

00:07:48 - 00:08:08 (20 sec)

The protective tariff policy of the Republicans, he said, has made the lives of masses of our countrymen sweeter, and brighter, and brighter, and brighter. It is the best for our citizenship and our civilization, and it opens up a higher and better destiny for our people.

Donald Trump

00:08:08 - 00:08:30 (22 sec)

Many politicians lamented the decline of our once-proud industries, and many countries denounced global excess capacity, but no one took action. All of our politicians, they saw what was happening to our country. I've seen it for 25 years, I've been talking about it. Talked about Japan, talked about China. But the politicians never did anything about it.

Donald Trump

00:08:30 - 00:08:54 (24 sec)

But now they are. Our factories were left to rot, and to rust all over the place. Thriving communities turned into ghost towns. You guys know that, right? Not any longer. The workers who poured their souls into building this great nation were betrayed, but that betrayal is now over.

Donald Trump

00:08:54 - 00:09:13 (19 sec)

I'm delivering on a promise I made during the campaign, and I've been making it for a good part of my life: If I ever did this -- I never really thought I would. I said, Let's run for president, and look what happened. And part of the reason it happened is you.

Donald Trump

00:09:13 - 00:09:26 (13 sec)

And my message having to do with you. And other messages also: security, military, the wall, the border. A lot of good messages. But this was one of the most important.

Donald Trump

00:09:26 - 00:09:48 (22 sec)

My most important job is to keep American people safe. And as you know, we just had approved a $700 billion military budget, the largest ever. $716 billion next year. That means not only safety, but it means jobs. It also means the use of steel from our country.

Donald Trump

00:09:48 - 00:10:19 (32 sec)

But if the same goals can be accomplished by other means, America will remain open to modifying or removing the tariffs for individual nations. As long as we can agree on a way to ensure that their products no longer threaten our security. So I've put Ambassador Lighthizer -- great gentleman -- in charge of negotiating with countries that seek an alternative to the steel and aluminum tariffs.

Donald Trump

00:10:19 - 00:10:38 (19 sec)

The fact is, we've been treating -- really, I mean, we've been treated so badly over the years by other countries. I think, really, we've been treated very badly by our politicians. By our presidents. By people that represented us that didn't, frankly, know what they were doing.

Donald Trump

00:10:38 - 00:10:59 (21 sec)

And we lose $800 billion a year on trade. Every year. $800 billion. It's been going on for a long time. $300 billion, $400 billion, $500 billion. Got up to $600 billion. And it keeps going. But it's going to start changing -- has to change.

Donald Trump

00:10:59 - 00:11:12 (12 sec)

We're negotiating, now, with China. We're in the midst of a big negotiation. I don't know that anything's going to come of it. They have been very helpful. President Xi, I have great respect for. A lot of respect.

Donald Trump

00:11:12 - 00:11:31 (19 sec)

But I don't know that anything's going to come of that. But we're going to cut down the -- the deficits one way or the other. We have a deficit with China of at least $500 billion. And when you add intellectual property, it's much higher than that. That's a year.

Donald Trump

00:11:31 - 00:11:46 (16 sec)

At the same time, due to the unique nature of our relationship with Canada and Mexico, we're negotiating, right now, NAFTA. And we're going to hold off the tariff on those two countries, to see whether or not we're able to make the deal on NAFTA.

Donald Trump

00:11:46 - 00:11:57 (11 sec)

National security. Very important aspect of that deal. And if we're making the deal on NAFTA, this will figure into the deal and we won't have the tariffs on Canada or Mexico.

Donald Trump

00:11:57 - 00:12:22 (25 sec)

If we don't make the deal on NAFTA, and if we terminate NAFTA because they're unable to make a deal that's fair for our workers and fair for our farmers -- we love our farmers -- and fair for our manufacturers, then we're going to terminate NAFTA and we'll start all over again or we'll just do it a different way. But we'll terminate NAFTA and that'll be it.

Donald Trump

00:12:22 - 00:12:35 (13 sec)

But I have a feeling we're going to make a deal on NAFTA. I've been saying it for a long time. We either make a deal or we terminate. And if we do, there won't be any tariffs on Canada, and there won't be any tariffs on Mexico.

Donald Trump

00:12:35 - 00:12:50 (15 sec)

One other thing. Some of the countries that we're dealing with are great partners, great military allies. And we're going to be looking at that very strongly. The tariffs don't go effective for at least another 15 days.

Donald Trump

00:12:50 - 00:13:01 (10 sec)

And we're going to see who's treating us fairly, who's not treating us fairly. Part of that's going to be military. Who's paying the bills, who's not paying the bills.

Donald Trump

00:13:01 - 00:13:11 (10 sec)

We subsidize many rich countries with our military. They pay not 100 cents on the dollar, in some cases not 50 cents on the dollar. And they're massively wealthy countries.

Donald Trump

00:13:11 - 00:13:29 (18 sec)

So we have to stop that. And that will enter into the equation also. Very interesting, I saw a -- a tweet, just came in from Elon Musk who's using our wonderful space facilities and did a great job three weeks ago.

Donald Trump

00:13:29 - 00:13:47 (18 sec)

He said, For example, an American car going to China pays 25 percent import duty. But a Chinese car coming to the United States only pays 2.5 percent. A tenfold difference.

Donald Trump

00:13:47 - 00:14:04 (17 sec)

So an American car going to China -- think of that -- pays 25 percent import duty. So we send our car over there, pay 25 percent. They send their car over here, 2.5 percent. Ten points. That's from Elon.

Donald Trump

00:14:04 - 00:14:26 (22 sec)

But everybody knows it, they've known it for years. They never did anything about it. It's got to change. We're going to be doing a reciprocal tax program at some point, so that if China's going to charge us 25 percent or if India's going to charge us 75 percent, and we charge them nothing -- if they're at 50 or they're at 75 or they're at 25, we're going to be at those same numbers.

Donald Trump

00:14:26 - 00:14:42 (16 sec)

It's called reciprocal, it's a mirror tax. So they charge us 50, we charge them 50. Right now, they'll charge us 50, we charge them nothing. Doesn't work. So that's called a reciprocal tax, or mirror tax. And we're going to be doing a lot of that.

Donald Trump

00:14:42 - 00:14:58 (15 sec)

It's -- we've really, the first year, we've really set the stage. A lot of it had to do with structurally, we had to go through certain procedures in order to get to this point. But now we're at this point.

Donald Trump

00:14:58 - 00:15:10 (12 sec)

American companies have not been treated fairly. And some American companies, frankly, have taken advantage of it and gone to other countries and developed, in Mexico, massive automobile plants.

Donald Trump

00:15:10 - 00:15:30 (20 sec)

Taking our jobs away and taking our companies down to Mexico to make the cars. And then they send them right across the border without tax, without anything. So we lose the jobs, they make the cars, they get all the benefits. Then they sell the cars back into the United States.

Donald Trump

00:15:30 - 00:15:56 (26 sec)

So we're changing things and we're going to have a lot of great relationships. I think companies are going to be very happy in the end. I think that countries are going to be very happy. We're going to show great flexibility. And, again, many of the countries that treat us the worst on trade, and on military, are our allies, as they like to call that .

Donald Trump

00:15:56 - 00:16:12 (16 sec)

So we just want fairness. We just want fairness. We want everything to be reciprocal. And I think, in the end, we're going to have a lot of great jobs, we're going to have a lot of great companies. All coming back into our country.

Donald Trump

00:16:12 - 00:16:24 (11 sec)

You see it -- the other day, Chrysler announced they're leaving Mexico, they're coming back into Michigan with a big plant. You haven't seen that in a long time, folks. You haven't seen that in a long time.

Donald Trump

00:16:24 - 00:16:34 (10 sec)

So because I sort of grew up with this group of people, I know a lot about the steel industry and I know a lot about the aluminum industry. We're going to bring them back.

Donald Trump

00:16:34 - 00:16:42 (9 sec)

I thought maybe a few of you might like to say a couple of words. And there's only about 25 million people watching, so don't worry about it. Do you want to say something? Come on up.

Dusty Stevens

00:16:42 - 00:16:43 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:16:43 - 00:16:47 (5 sec)

How are you? Please.

Dusty Stevens

00:16:47 - 00:17:11 (23 sec)

My name's Dusty Stevens. I work out of Hawesville, Kentucky. Right now, we're running at 40 percent capacity. Two years ago, we shut down 60 percent of the capacity when we had a downturn in the market. My father worked in the industry, and worked at that plant for 40 years. So this hits home for all of us at Hawesville.

Dusty Stevens

00:17:11 - 00:17:30 (19 sec)

When these tariffs go into a place, this gives us ability to come back to 100 percent capacity, investing over $100 million to our plant, and over 300-and-some-odd jobs will be brought back to the communities, so I'd like to say thank you.

Donald Trump

00:17:30 - 00:17:45 (15 sec)

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. [Applause] One -- one thing also: the quality of our steel is really much higher. It's of a much better quality, which, especially for certain things, is very, very important. Please?

Scott Sauritch

00:17:45 - 00:18:08 (23 sec)

Thank you, Mr. President. Hello, everybody. My name is Scott Sauritch. I'm president of Local 2227, and I'd like to tell you story about a -- My father, during the '80s, he lost his job due to imports coming into this country. And I just want to tell you what that does to a man with six kids is devastating.

Scott Sauritch

00:18:08 - 00:18:31 (24 sec)

So I -- I never forgot that, looking into his eyes, in my household, what that does to a family. You hear about it, but when you're actually involved in it, it impacts you. It's -- it -- it'll never leave you. So with that being said, for Herman Sauritch, your story didn't end, and offer all the are people that I represent at my union, I never want to see it happen again.

Scott Sauritch

00:18:31 - 00:18:49 (17 sec)

And for these workers, and these folks, I appreciate the opportunity, and I'm very humbled with this. So it's very important to us, so I never want to see it happen again. And I say that from, sincerely, from my heart, and I thank you for the opportunity, for what you do.

Donald Trump

00:18:49 - 00:18:50 (1 sec)

And your father's Herman?

Scott Sauritch

00:18:50 - 00:18:51 (2 sec)

Herman, sorry. Yes, sir.

Donald Trump

00:18:51 - 00:18:55 (4 sec)

Yes. Well, your father Herman is looking down. He's very proud of you right now.

Scott Sauritch

00:18:55 - 00:18:56 (1 sec)

Oh, he's still alive. He's...

Donald Trump

00:18:56 - 00:19:07 (11 sec)

Oh, he is? Well, then he's... [Laughter] Then he's even more proud of you. Then he's even more proud. Anybody else? Please, come on up. Let's arm wrestle. Come on up.

Ron Davis

00:19:07 - 00:19:32 (25 sec)

How you doing? My name is Ron Davis, steel worker from ArcelorMittal Steel in Conshohocken. Just wanted to say, in 2009, my plant supplied a majority of the armor from the Humvees, and all the vehicles in theater. And it's sad to say, because all these imports come in our country, our plant's going to be idle in September. So at one time, our plant had 400 members.

Ron Davis

00:19:32 - 00:19:42 (10 sec)

We're going to be down to about 71, so these tariffs definitely have an impact, and maybe not for our plant, but for the other plants out there, so appreciate what you're doing.

Donald Trump

00:19:42 - 00:19:51 (10 sec)

Thank you very much. Thank you. [Applause] Anybody else? Anybody else? You're OK? You're just going to accept great jobs, right?

Unidentified

00:19:51 - 00:19:53 (2 sec)

Donald Trump

00:19:53 - 00:20:22 (29 sec)

You're going to be very happy. You're going to see things changing very rapidly. So it's really my honor to start this process. It's going to be a very fair process. It's going to be very fair to other countries, especially those that treat us well, and we look forward to it, and we look forward to having lots of mills opening up, lots of plants opening up, both steel and aluminum, and other things. We'll be doing other things, very positive things.

Donald Trump

00:20:22 - 00:20:30 (9 sec)

But you are great people. Would you like to take a picture in the Oval Office? I assume you've all been many times into the Oval Office. Come on, let's go and do that. Let's go and do that.

Unidentified

00:20:30 - 00:20:31 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:20:31 - 00:21:33 (62 sec)

Yes, I'm going to do. We'll go into the Oval Office. We're going to sign this up. We'll go into the Oval Office. We'll have a picture, OK? OK, thank you. [Applause] About time, right? He's been waiting for a long time. There you go. Let's pass them around. [Applause] [Inaudible] Mike, get up here, Mike. Let's go take a picture of the Oval Office, OK? Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. [Applause]

Question

00:21:33 - 00:21:47 (14 sec)

About trans-shipping -- what do you think about trans-shipping in steel and aluminum from other countries?

Donald Trump

00:21:47 - 00:22:27 (40 sec)

We're going to stop the trans-shipping. Well, we'll let it happen, but they've got to pay. So trans-shipping, frankly, is a big deal. China says it's got two percent, but it sends much more. We're going to have a great relationship, hopefully, with China, but we have to do something. We're losing with China $500 billion a year.

Donald Trump

00:22:27 - 00:22:42 (15 sec)

We have to do something. And they trans-ship, and we're going to accept their product, but it's going to cost a lot of money from the standpoint of the trans-shipper, OK? Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________