Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy: ‘This Administration Is Fighting for Fair Trade — Full Stop’

The Trump administration is “fighting for fair trade — full stop,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters, providing an example of how unfair existing trade practices have been.

“When we produce a car in America and we send it to Europe, we are charged a 10 percent tariff on the American-made car,” Duffy said, explaining that it is not the same the other way around. When a European-made car comes into the United States, he continued, the U.S. hits them with a two and a half percent tariff.

“So why is that fair? Why do they charge us more for the American-made car that we charge them for the European-made car?” Duffy asked.

“The President understands fundamentally that it’s unfair. And so I think if you listen to reciprocal trade, reciprocal tariffs, the effort is to bring tariffs down, bring barriers down,” Duffy said, explaining that “no one wants to do that, because they all access the biggest market in the world — ours — without paying anything.”

“And we want to sell our great American products by our great American manufacturers overseas. They put barriers up, and that’s fundamentally unfair,” Duffy explained.

Although he said that yes, the recent changes rattle the market, he praised President Donald Trump for having the “heart and soul to go, ‘You know what? I’m willing to take a little bit of that rattle and make sure that we stand up and fight for the American worker, the American company, and we’ll bring fairness back to trade.'”

“If you’re not gonna be fair to America or our workers, you’re not gonna access our market or if you do you’re gonna pay a lot of money,” Duffy added.

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During his “Liberation Day” speech, Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made cars.

RELATED — Trump Announces Reciprocal Tariffs on All Countries: “This Is Liberation Day”

“Toyota sells 1 million foreign made automobiles into the United States. And General Motors sells almost none. Ford sells very little. None of our companies are allowed to go into other countries,” Trump said.

“And I say that friend and foe, and in many cases, the friend is worse than the foe in terms of trade, but such horrendous imbalances have devastated our industrial base and put our national security at risk,” he continued, adding, “They let it happen, and they let it happen to an extent that nobody can even believe.”

“That’s why, effective at midnight, we will impose a 25 percent tariff on all foreign-made automobiles,” Trump said.

Duffy is not the only member of the administration defending Trump’s moves, as Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins predicted “the new golden age of prosperity will move in again.”

“This will be a short time of uncertainty, and then we’ll move back to the prosperity that this President has envisioned, that he is so bold and so willing to fight for and I couldn’t be more proud and stand next to him,” she said.