Springfield Standard

Senator Schmitt appeared on Fox Business' Varney & Company to express support for President Trump's America First trade policies. The discussion came ahead of a newly announced trade deal between the United States and the United Kingdom.

During the interview, Senator Schmitt commented on the significance of these agreements: “I think you’re going to see more of these. And I think these initial ones, these first out of the gate are going to be important, people are going to look to that as a framework. As President Trump really rebalances the trade equation, we’ve been ripped off and taken advantage of for far too long."

He further elaborated on how this approach could benefit American markets: "We never adjusted after the Cold War ended from a foreign policy perspective and also from an economic and trade policy. That’s what’s happening right now. So, the net-net of all of this, Stuart, will be we’ll be much better off, we’ll have access to more markets for our commodities, for our good, for our products. We’ll be making more here, we’ve seen record investment, over $5 trillion announced already in the United States, so things are moving in the right direction. I think there’s more of this to come.”

Schmitt also addressed America's trade relationship with China: “You’ve got the China bucket and you’ve got everybody else. And right now, President Trump is going to make these deals with countries like Japan and Australia. You know, you can’t sell beef in Australia right now, American beef. That’s ridiculous."

He emphasized concerns regarding China's current practices: "So the U.K. is going to be first up, Japan and then others. And then you’ve got China. That’s a serious deal. They export five times what we export to them. They steal our IP, they subsidize and dump products, wiping out entire industries. They’ve been stealing our jobs for far too long."

The senator concluded by expressing hope that China would engage constructively in future negotiations: "We’ll see if China comes to the table on this for real.”