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Tariffs Likely To Change But Not Go Away Soon, U.S. Rep. Manning Says

A worker puts on his face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus as he pushes a cart loaded with shoes made by Nike at a shopping mall in Beijing, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. China's exports rose in 2020 despite pressure from the coronavirus pandemic and a tariff war with Washington, boosting its politically volatile trade surplus to $535 billion, one of the highest ever reported. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

The Trump Administration's trade-war tariffs have hit her Sixth District hard, according to U.S. Representative Kathy Manning. The Democratic Congresswoman is expecting changes under the Biden administration that would make the tariffs more strategic.

The wide-ranging tariffs have caused havoc for a number of North Carolina interests, from tobacco farming to furniture.

Manning says they've been a disaster for the district. 

The Trump Administration imposed them in a trade war with China, alleging unfair practices. They made Chinese goods more expensive to import. China then put in place retaliatory tariffs of their own. 

Manning says China should be punished for such practices like intellectual property theft. But she says the current tariffs lack a cohesive plan.

“Shooting from the hip is not a policy," she says. "I'm confident that Joe Biden will put together a long-term strategy that will help our country get where we need to be, and his policies will follow that strategy.”

Biden opposes Chinese tariffs but he hasn't indicated that undoing them will be a top priority. He's focusing instead on an aggressive "Buy American" program that would use billions of federal dollars to invest in U.S.-made goods and domestic research and development in technology.

The full interview, where Manning also discusses the Capitol insurrection, impeachment and more, can be found on WFDD's YouTube channel.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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