During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) spoke about President Trump's tariff policies.
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00:00I agree with my Republican colleagues. Did y'all hear that? It's on the record.
00:05Yes.
00:06I agree with my Republican colleagues and even President Trump that bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States should be a bipartisan priority.
00:16And that's why I supported the Inflation Reduction Act, which has been a game changer in this country, certainly in my state of Georgia, where it's helped to create 42,000 clean manufacturing jobs across the state.
00:32These are good-paying, advanced manufacturing jobs of tomorrow that often don't require a college degree.
00:39But last week, I released this report that shows that these 42,000 Georgia jobs are at risk under the tax bill currently being rammed through Congress by Republicans.
00:51Without objection, I would like to enter my report.
00:53Without objection, so ordered.
00:55Mr. Isaacs, President Trump claims his tariffs will also bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States. Is he right?
01:01Will the president's tariffs on raw goods and component parts boost domestic manufacturing?
01:11Targeted tariffs can play a role in incentivizing the reshoring of certain jobs or industries.
01:19But we think that they should be targeted and used strategically and supplemented by the positive agenda I've outlined in my testimony regarding tax and workforce development and the like.
01:34So targeted and strategic is not words I'd use to describe this approach.
01:40Do you think these tariffs threaten the manufacturing boom we've seen in Georgia because of the IRA?
01:45Well, I can't speak to the IRA, but with regard to the investments that have been accelerated under the CHIPS Act, I believe that they have the potential to increase costs of critical inputs that are required to maintain our competitiveness in fabrication and packaging and equipment and the like throughout the ecosystem.
02:11God, it sounds like it could be a real drag and we see evidence of that, a real drag on manufacturing by taxing these raw parts and components.
02:22We've seen, because of global supply chains, obviously we need to import raw goods and component parts from all over to complete that manufacturing here at home.
02:37We've seen this in Georgia with Hyundai, with Q-Sales.
02:40These tariffs make importing those raw materials and component parts incredibly expensive, making it even harder to boost American manufacturing and to create jobs.
02:50The clean energy sector relies upon critical minerals, many of which are not available in the United States.
03:02Tell me, what will happen to industries that cannot access the critical minerals they need because of retaliatory measures or because the cost of importing them skyrockets due to tariffs?
03:14Thank you, Senator.
03:15Thank you, Senator.
03:16When we started this hearing, Senator Crapo pointed to dysprosium, and dysprosium is a really critical input for automotive manufacturing.
03:24People think it's just an EV battery.
03:26It's not.
03:27It's actually in the stereo system in every single car.
03:31These minerals are absolutely critical for the automotive manufacturing industry.
03:34I am from Detroit, and when these tariffs were announced, one of the first things that we saw were announced a round of layoffs that were made.
03:41Ultimately, every time we see a supply chain disruption in minerals for automotives, regardless of what kind of automotive, when things get significantly more expensive, we've seen that people buy less cars when the economy is weak and when economic uncertainty is high.
03:56They undermine the competitiveness of these really critical industries.
04:00So we need to be very strategic about tariffs to ensure that we're not ultimately crippling the manufactured good because we have to think about it from a mine to manufactured good perspective.
04:11And if there's a disruption, it ultimately hurts the end good.
04:14Would it send prices up based on your background and experience on cars?
04:19What about cars?
04:21Would these tariffs on raw materials send prices up for consumers?
04:25A hundred percent.
04:26And I want to go to the EV, right?
04:27When I look at an internal combustion engine in the US, it uses about 33 kilograms of critical minerals.
04:33An electric vehicle uses 210 kilograms.
04:36It's a six-fold increase.
04:38We sometimes think that if the EV industry was to be competitive on its own, it would stand up in a free market.
04:43But China has used $230.9 billion of subsidies to BYD between 2009 and 2023.
04:53But now if you go to Mexico City and get an Uber, it's probably a BYD, right?
04:58We have seen that it is a competitive global industry.
05:01Ensuring that we have competitive mineral inputs is critical to sustaining the competitiveness of GMs and Fords in this country
05:09and ensuring that we can sell internationally.
05:13Thank you so much.
05:14Congressional Republicans are currently trying to repeal clean energy investments
05:18and threaten the more than 42,000 Georgians who were employed because of the IRA.
05:23Meanwhile, President Trump's chaotic and punitive tariffs are punishing companies, did the right thing,
05:29and brought that manufacturing back to the United States because of the IRA by making parts and materials so expensive.
05:36This is, in my view, is a one-two gut punch to Georgia's clean manufacturing economy.
05:43And these tariffs are making us weaker and weakening our position in relationship to China
05:51and making us poor in its long past time for Congress to reclaim our power in the area of tariffs.
05:59Thank you so very much.
06:01Senator Welch.
06:02Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
06:04Mr. Raglan, I appreciated your comments earlier about this.