06.12.25

Cantwell, Experts Agree: Trump’s Trade War Is Short-Term Pain With No Long-Term Gain

“We're really going to hurt our long-term competitiveness as a nation from doing this,” says Cantwell

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, participated in a spotlight forum on tariffs hosted by Democratic senators.

At the forum, Sen. Cantwell questioned witnesses about the long-term damage that President Trump’s trade war is inflicting on America’s long-term competitiveness.

“We should be doubling down now on workforce training. Instead, we're throwing it into cost and chaos, and so we're really going to hurt our long-term competitiveness as a nation from doing this,” said Sen. Cantwell. “So, we're not getting any short-term gain. Nobody's going to make any money here.”

“Senator, you're absolutely right,” responded Adam Posen, President of the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Even if our goal is to create more manufacturing or good jobs [...], you can't compete in manufacturing if you're further up the value chain, where the better jobs are, if you can't substitute for these imports at any reasonable price."

"This is short-term pain and long-term pain,” added Thea Lee, Economist and Former Deputy Undersecretary for International Labor Affairs. “There is no short-term pain for the long-term gain, because we are destroying the rules-based system."

This week, Sen. Cantwell joined 30 Senators in filing an amicus brief in a key case, Oregon v. Department of Homeland Security, challenging the Trump Administration’s abuse of emergency powers to impose global tariffs.

In April, Sen. Cantwell introduced the bipartisan Trade Review Act of 2025 to reaffirm Congress’ key role in setting and approving U.S. trade policy, and reestablish limits on the president’s ability to impose unilateral tariffs. Her bill has since picked up 12 additional cosponsors – an equal mix of Republicans and Democrats – and been endorsed by multiple major U.S. business organizations, including the National Retail Federation, which is the largest retail trade association in the world. House members also introduced a bipartisan companion bill.

On April 16, Sen. Cantwell joined nine local business owners and leaders at the Port of Seattle to push back against the Trump administration’s chaotic tariffs-first trade policy. On May 29, she gathered stakeholders at the Port of Seattle again to respond to the chaos caused by President Donald Trump scrambling to keep his draconian tariffs in place amid court challenges.

“American businesses need a rules-based trade system. That means American families would have the certainty, not chaos and not higher prices. We know this: That when you start trade wars, usually that means you end up closing markets,” Sen. Cantwell said in at the May 29 press conference.

In Washington state, two out of every five jobs are tied to trade and trade-related industries. More information about how those tariffs will affect consumers and businesses in the State of Washington can be found HERE.  

For the past four months, President Trump has been sowing economic chaos across the country with unpredictable and ever-changing tariff announcements. His back-and-forth announcements and actions have whipsawed American businesses and consumers, as well as close neighbors and allies.

Federal Reserve Chairman Powell recently warned, “What looks likely, given the scope and scale of the tariffs, is that … the risks to higher inflation, higher unemployment have increased.”  This week, the Federal Reserve issued its “beige book” report, which found that all 12 Federal Reserve Districts “indicated that higher tariff rates were putting upward pressure on costs and prices.”  Today, the World Bank also said that because of a “substantial rise in trade barriers,” it is cutting its forecast for U.S. economic growth in 2025 in half, while also cutting its estimate for global economic growth, and warned that the world economy “is once more running into turbulence” and “Without a swift course correction, the harm to living standards could be deep.’’

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