(Radio Iowa) – President Trump announced last (Monday) night he’ll impose 25-percent tariffs on Iowa’s two largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico. In a conference call this morning with Iowa reporters, Senator Chuck Grassley called himself a “free trader” and says Trump’s tactics are “questionable” but he’s willing to pause and see if they’re effective. “I don’t believe in tariffs, but Trump has a new approach to tariffs,” Grassley says. “He believes you put tariffs on, you bring people to the negotiating table, and then you get freer trade as a result of it.” Iowa businesses ship more products to Canada than anywhere else. Iowa exported five-and-a-half billion dollars’ worth of goods to Canada in 2023, which equated to 30-percent of the state’s total exports, while Mexico is Iowa’s second-largest trading partner. Grassley, a Republican, says he’ll take a wait-and-see approach to the president’s threatened tariffs.

“I think the tactic is questionable, but I’m not going to bad-mouth Trump’s approach,” Grassley says. “I’m going to sit and see how it works out. I hope he’s successful.” The Tax Foundation, the world’s leading nonpartisan tax policy nonprofit, estimates the tariffs would reduce the nation’s G-D-P by four-tenths of one percent and cut employment by nearly 345-thousand jobs. The foundation’s 2024 report says its estimates “do not capture the effects of retaliation, nor the additional harms that would stem from starting a global trade war.” Grassley says Trump already has a track record with enacting tariffs during his first administration. “We found that it did have an impact with China when he put the tariffs on,” Grassley says. “That was not a general tariff approach, so I think we’re seeing a different approach used by President Trump this time on tariffs, as opposed to other times.”

Grassley was asked -twice- how the threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico would impact Iowa’s consumers, businesses and farmers, but he did not answer the question directly.