US VP Vance backs Trump tariffs after years of criticising protectionism

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US Vice President JD Vance is now a public champion of the Trump administration's protectionist trade agenda, CNN reported, despite having previously criticised tariffs and doubted that such policies would bring back manufacturing jobs.

On Wednesday, Vance applauded in the Rose Garden as President Donald Trump announced a broad new round of tariffs aimed at reviving US manufacturing, calling it a declaration of "economic independence."

"It's our declaration of economic independence," Trump said Wednesday. "Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already."

But from 2016 to 2019, Vance repeatedly stated that American manufacturing jobs were lost primarily to automation and technological change, not trade policy, and that "protectionist" approaches would not bring those jobs back.

"So many of these jobs that have disappeared from these areas just aren't coming back. They haven't disappeared so much from globalisation or from shipping them overseas," Vance said in a January 2017 interview with Education Week. "They've largely disappeared because of automation and because of new technological change."

In several public comments, interviews, and social media posts during that time, Vance aligned himself with Republicans who were sceptical of Trump's first-term trade agenda. After Trump met with manufacturing CEOs in February 2017 and criticised US trade deficits, Vance posted: "Can't be repeated enough: if you're worried about America's economic interest, focus more on automation/education than trade protectionism."

In December 2016, after Trump promoted a deal at a Carrier plant in Indiana to keep jobs from moving to Mexico, Vance liked a tweet from Republican Sen. Ben Sasse that read: "Automation--even more than trade--will continue to shrink the number of manufacturing jobs. This trend is irreversible." CNN recorded that like before the social media platform X made likes private.

Vance acknowledged the negative effects of globalisation on certain communities but warned against sweeping changes to US trade policy.

"Now, does that mean that we should be hyper-protectionists in our approach to trade? I would argue no," Vance said at an April 2017 event. "But should we be cognizant of the fact that when you have some of those communities that are really exposed to trade, it can very often harm them or at least cause some pretty negative consequences, even as it might cause some positive ones. I think we have to."

"I do think that trade hasn't necessarily been in the best interests of a lot of these communities. Now, the question of whether you can go backwards in time, I think the answer is no," he told a gathering at the University of Chicago in February 2017, reported CNN.

By 2019, Vance's stance began to shift.

Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for the vice president, said: "Vice President Vance has been crystal clear in his unwavering support for revitalising the American economy by bringing back manufacturing jobs and sticking up for middle class workers and families since before he launched his US Senate race, and that is a large part of why he was elected to public office in the first place."

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