Republican businessman Bernie Moreno, who defeated incumbent Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), noted President-elect Trump’s promise to have tariffs lifted the U.S. economy.
“They’re not going anywhere,” Moreno said Wednesday on Fox News. “We’re going to have a tax policy that punishes companies that ship our jobs overseas and a tax policy that rewards companies for bringing jobs back.”
Trump’s tariff plan includes a general tariff on imported goods and an additional tariff specific to imports from China, a huge trading partner for the United States.
He proposed a general tariff of 10 and 20 percent on all imported goods in order to pull investment to the U.S. and improve the domestic industry.
Economists caution that the general tariff idea could cause issues for existing trade agreements with potential impacts even from longstanding U.S. partners.
Moreno, who build a successful networks of car dealerships in Ohio, initially trailed Brown for much of the race. He said Wednesday that the U.S. government needs to focus on growing its middle class.
“We have rich people everywhere on Earth. That doesn’t make it unique here in America. It’s a growing and thriving middle class and we have to deliver to those people,” he said. “And we will.”
