Trump Administration Tries to Ease Republican Worries About Trade Fights
By Siobhan Hughes and Jacob M. Schlesinger, The Wall Street Journal
July 26, 2018 7:59 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON—The Trump administration on Thursday touted its truce with Europe to nervous lawmakers as evidence that its trade policies are starting to show results, but Republicans pushed the administration to accelerate efforts to find similar solutions on other trade fronts.
President Trump flew to the agricultural and industrial Midwest Thursday to highlight what he said are the emerging successes from his hardball trade tactics, such as reopened steel mills protected by tariffs and European pledges to buy crops recently shut out of China, part of an accord reached on Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Mr. Trump’s aides said his threats were also starting to show results in the form of newly active negotiations from North America to Asia to Africa. They said that has raised the prospect of new trade gains amid the pain already felt in the U.S. from higher import prices and from exports lost due to retaliation by trading partners.
