Footage has resurfaced on social media of Nancy Pelosi demanding reciprocal tariffs against China to rebalance the US trade deficit with China.
Pelosi has been a staunch critic of President Trump’s new wave of tariffs, which were unveiled on Wednesday.
In response to the wide-ranging duties, Pelosi said, “Donald Trump’s reckless tariffs will cause chaos in our economy, raise prices for consumers and hurt hardworking American families.”
“This is not a strategy—it’s the largest tax hike on the American people in history,” she added.
But back in 1996, a much fresher-faced Pelosi was singing a different tune.
“How far does China have to go?” Pelosi asked.
“How much more repression, how big a trade deficit and loss of jobs for the American worker, and how much more dangerous proliferation has to exist before members of this House of Representatives will say, ‘I will not endorse the status quo.’ As I mentioned, it’s about jobs, proliferation, and human rights. And there are those who say we shouldn’t link human rights and trade and proliferation and trade; I disagree. But if we just want to take up this issue on the basis of economics alone, Indeed, China should not receive most favored nation status for several reasons that I’d like to go into now.”
Pelosi then produced a chart not unlike President Trump’s to demonstrate the trade deficit, which at that time stood at $34 billion.
The Democrat Congresswoman from California went on to question the disparity between American (2%) and Chinese (35%) tariffs, asking “Is that reciprocal?”
She described the effects of this economic imbalance on American jobs as “the biggest and cruelest hoax of all.”
“Not only do we not have market access, not only do they have prohibitive tariffs, not only are our exports not let in very specifically, but China benefits with at least, at least 10 million jobs from US China trade.”
What a difference a few decades can make.