Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Anne Villamil: University of Iowa Economics Professor on the looming Trump tariffs

Transcript

Anne Villamil: University of Iowa Economics Professor on the looming Trump tariffs · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All eyes on America today. It's Liberation Day. I think
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: it's going to be something that's going to bring a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: lot of wealth back to our country, tremendous wealth back
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to our country.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Actually, the President has a brilliant team of advisors who
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: have been studying these issues for decades, and we are
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: focused on restoring the golden age of America.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: All right. President Trump has set to start dishing out
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a number of tariffs about nine o'clock our time to
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: address what he calls unfair trade with other countries. US
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: retailers say that nervous the European Union threatens a robust
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and calibrated response. So let's go to America. We're going
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to the University of Iowa, and there there is an
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: economics professor by the name of Anne Villamil who joins me. Now,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: good morning to you. Anne.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: So what's the vibe like over there?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: I think there is. I think lots of us don't
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: know what to expect. There's obviously lots of concern about
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: a trade war, but it's been on and off and
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: on again. So we're going to see what the announcements
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: are today. I think there have been reports that they're
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: still fine tuning.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Is there a realization makes the American public that an
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: awful lot of stuff is suddenly going to cost an
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: awful lot more.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I think that that is starting to hit, particularly in Iowa.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: In Iowa there is it's a very small state, but
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: it does a lot of agricultural exports and also John
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Deere manufacturing exports, and people are I think very concerned
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: because if you export, you care about other people's markets.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: So it's going to be higher prices for us, but
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: also some tough times for our firms who export.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Prison. Trump says he's doing this for the American workers.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: So what has been the representatives of the American workers reactions,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: say the unions?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: It is interesting that I think that there's so much
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: on certainty that you know, economists are sort of uniformly
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: concerned about trade wars because we know how damaging they are.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: But I think there is a lot of wait and see.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Right now. There are trade problems, There's no question about that.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: The question is what's the most effective way to resolve
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: those problems. And so it's been surprising and concerning, particularly
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: in the United States with Canada. Canada is a strong
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: ally and neighbor and so there are concerns about things
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: like we get eighty percent of our aluminum from Canada,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: and to raise those prices. That's an intermediate good that
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: our firms used to produce, and I think many of
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: our firms are concerned about that. But there's been so
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: much back and forth. Yet we're going to do something,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: We're going to wait a month, We're going to do
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: something else, We're going to wait a month that not
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: that much has happened yet.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sures, we're all wanting some Suresey and we'll find
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: that out at nine o'clock this morning. Of course, the
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: rest of the world is still embracing globalism, but America
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: is now an outlier as it looks inward. Is your
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: American economy strong enough to stand alone?
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Well, I certainly hope that we will continue being a
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: part of the trading community. The US economy has been strong,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: it probably could endure a lot of this pain. The
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: problem is this is just going to be pure pain,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: and the President has not yet made a case for
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: why this is the most effective way to do this.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: There are certainly bilateral issues with China. There are certainly
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: issues about defense sharing with Europe. Those issues are real,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: but starting a trade war as a way to solve
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: them is certainly something that concerns most economists.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: And Villmel who is an economics professor at the University
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: of Iowa, and I thank you so much for your time.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: to news Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.