House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady said he’s confident the discrepancies between the Republican party and 2016 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump on trade won’t be a problem if the candidate is elected in November, during an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation at the Republican National Convention Tuesday.
Trump has been vocal about his distaste for trade agreements struck between the United States and other nations – claiming they are largely responsible for the loss of manufacturing jobs throughout country.
“He starts from a strong position of let’s enforce the agreements we have better – I agree with that,” Brady said. “Secondly, let’s have the best agreements possible for the country, I agree with that as well.”
“Here’s where I’m hopeful we can convince him, just like tax reform, to make America strong again, it’s not just enough to buy American, we have to sell American all throughout the world,” he continued. “These trade agreements basically tell other countries if you can sell one way into the U.S., we insist we sell two ways into your country for your customers on a level play field.”
Brady said while come critics allege the U.S. doesn’t benefit from free-trade agreements, they generally lead to economic benefits for the country.
“We’re actually really good at this, and I know people don’t think we are, but America is great at manufacturing, innovation and services,” Brady said. “So when we get that level playing field we normally turn trade deficits into trade surpluses.”
The Texas Republican noted Trump’s running mate, Indian Gov. Mike Pence, has traditionally been a strong advocate for free trade.
Brady said he is looking forward to working with the Trump administration, adding the campaign’s tax advisers have been complementary of the House GOP’s tax reform blueprint laid out in June.
While the congressional Republican proposal has a number of differences from Trump’s plan on the business side, he believes both the principles mostly align with one another.
“In our discussions with the Trump tax leaders, they love what we’re doing, they’re redesigning and coming out with version 2.0 of their tax plan – I think there are going to be a ton of similarities,” he said.
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