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NPR’s Scott Simon asks Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., about Bacon’s trip to Mexico to foster cooperation in ongoing trade talks.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Trade negotiations with Mexico continue in spite of the updated tariff rates on dozens of trading partners announced by the White House Thursday. That same day, President Trump spoke with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and agreed to extend negotiations another 90 days. And that call followed a meeting of President Sheinbaum with two U.S. congressmen, Democrat Ro Khanna of California, and Republican Don Bacon of Nebraska. Representative Bacon joins us now from his home district, Omaha. Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.
DON BACON: It’s a real pleasure to be with you. Thank you.
SIMON: Do you and Representative Khanna want to take credit for the new deadline?
BACON: Well, we did talk to the president the night before. They had the conversation, and Mexico is the number one customer of Nebraska’s exports in agriculture. So I know I’d truly like to get this trade stuff fixed with Mexico, and I know that Mexico leadership also wants to get this put behind them.
SIMON: Are you working around President Trump?
BACON: Well, I don’t really agree with two-thirds of his tariff policy. Some of it, I think we do need. China is a bad trade partner. The EU, though they don’t have tariffs, they had barriers, so there needed to be some discussions there, not necessarily a trade war. So I’m not against all tariffs, but I think what the president has done has not been very helpful. The Constitution gives tariff authority to the Congress. We’ve given the president emergency powers, but I think it’s being abused in this case. And it’s creating a lot of damage. I saw it in Mexico, where they don’t feel like we’ve been treating them as a good faith partner. And Canada, there’s so much anger towards Americans right now. We’re losing lots of business, lots of customers, lots of tourists. I feel like there’s some consequences to this tariff policy that we’ve not felt yet, but we will.
SIMON: What remains to be worked out over the next 90 days with Mexico, from what you’ve learned?
BACON: Well, we’ve got to realize that what they trade to us, at least in the agriculture area, is by and large things we don’t grow ourselves or at least at the level that we need. So avocados, tomatoes – even though we have good tomatoes here in the United States, we don’t have the volume and Mexico fills that gap. We have great corn, soybeans, ethanol. These are all things that Mexico wants to purchase from us. So I see it as a win-win trade relationship, and we should try to keep the tariffs and barriers as low as we can, ’cause that helps out the consumers of Mexico and the consumers of America.
SIMON: A news conference after the call on Thursday, President Sheinbaum referred to progress she felt Mexico had made on border security and investment in the U.S. by Mexican companies.
BACON: Well, the facts are clear that every single day right now, we’re catching about 200 people trying to cross the border. It used to be 12,000 at the worst. The border is, I would say, secure. And the numbers prove it. That’s a tribute to President Trump, I believe, but also to President Sheinbaum from Mexico. I think they’ve been a good faith partner with us on the border security, and they’re also really working hard to go after the cartels that are behind the fentanyl epidemic in America. They want to work together with us to go after these cartels. But they’ve demonstrated good faith efforts to want to work with us on a common threat. I think President Trump sees that, as well.
SIMON: I gather, Representative Bacon, that Nebraska’s other top customers for agricultural products are Japan, China, South Korea, Canada, the EU, Taiwan, Colombia.
BACON: Nebraska is an export state, one of the biggest export states in the country, and tariff war is not good for us. And we’re seeing it. The economy in Nebraska constricted by 6% – the new data that came out this past month. Can you imagine a restriction in the economy by 6%? If that happened nationally, we’d be in a very bad shape. But that’s – a lot of this is because we’re agricultural-dependent state, so is Iowa, and they’re having the same numbers. And so what we’re seeing is basically a recession economy in Nebraska and Iowa right now.
And tariff wars do not help. I could see targeting tariffs towards one or two countries that are a problem but going after 80 countries at once – I mean, I’m a military general. You want to fight a one- front war. You don’t want to have a two-front war or a three-front war, if you can help it. I feel like the president has invited a multi-front war on trade.
SIMON: Representative Bacon, if you think President Trump is exceeding his authority, I mean, that’s a serious charge. Shouldn’t you be going to Speaker Johnson and not the president of Mexico?
BACON: Well, we have, and Speaker Johnson wants to give the president time to do his tariff policy, so we don’t agree. I’m not saying all Republicans feel this way, but I would say the majority Republicans right now want to give the president time to do his tariff policy. I just disagree.
SIMON: Representative Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, thanks so much for being with us.
BACON: Thank you.
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