--- title: Republican Debate: Donald Trump, Tariff-Supporting Free Trader description: If Trump is actually saying that he wants to impose tariffs on China and Japan, then that's fine. But it means he's not a free trader. canonical: https://time.com/4181999/donald-trump-tariff-free-trade/ author: Haley Sweetland Edwards article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-15T05:22:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:41:27.790Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump, Tariff-Supporting Free Trader og:description: A position at odds with itself. og:url: https://time.com/4181999/donald-trump-tariff-free-trade/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2269fb24295e5091/6988794ff887dc8a98e942a5/republican-presidential-debate-gop-photos-005.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3600 og:image:height: 2025 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-DEBATE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump, Tariff-Supporting Free Trader twitter:description: A position at odds with itself. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2269fb24295e5091/6988794ff887dc8a98e942a5/republican-presidential-debate-gop-photos-005.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump, Tariff-Supporting Free Trader > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=813cd243-539e-41ed-a695-59767656312a&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes [Watch (HLS stream): FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/43Jv4tOR.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2016-01-15. GOP DEBATE 011416: The FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes_  by [Haley Sweetland Edwards](https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/)  ## Haley Sweetland Edwards Jan 15, 2016 5:22 AM UTC GOP DEBATE 011416: The FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes  by [Haley Sweetland Edwards](https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/)  ## Haley Sweetland Edwards Jan 15, 2016 5:22 AM UTC At Thursday’s Republican debate, Donald Trump said he would impose punishing tariffs on China. But he also said he was in favor of free trade. Those two ideas aren’t exactly compatible. The hard-to-follow argument came after Trump was quizzed by Fox Business Network moderator Neil Cavuto about [a recent New York _Times_ article](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/07/donald-trump-says-he-favors-big-tariffs-on-chinese-exports/?%5Fr=0) that said he would favor punishing China with a 45% tariff for manipulating its currency among other sins. “What I’m saying is this,” he said. “I’m saying that … if they don’t start treating us fairly and stop devaluing and let their currency rise so that our companies can compete and we don’t lose all of these millions of jobs that we’re losing, I would certainly start taxing goods that come in from China. Who the hell has to lose $505 billion a year?” He delivered his lines with typical Trumpian gusto: he sounded gruff and tough and threatening. But he also sounded like he’s opposed to free trade, which he denied. “I’m a free trader,” he added a minute after his pro-tariff rant. **Read More:** [_Trump Invokes 9/11 to Defend ‘New York Values’ From Ted Cruz_](http://time.com/4181975/republican-debate-trump-defends-new-york/) A little economics lesson is in order here. If you are in favor of free trade, you believe two things. One, that goods and services ought to move freely over international borders. And two, that once countries begin imposing tariffs or quotas, then those trade barriers beget other trade barriers, which beget other trade barriers, and so on, until, well, trade is no longer _free_. That’s why free traders are opposed to tariffs of all kinds—and here’s the really important part—even when those tariffs are designed to protect your country’s industries, or your country’s workers, or to punish other countries that are discriminating against your country’s industries. It’s like unilateral disarmament. Both sides give up the weapon. So, if Trump is actually saying that he wants to impose tariffs in order to protect U.S. jobs or to make it easier for U.S. companies to compete, then that’s fine. But it means he’s not in favor of free trade. Which, to be fair, is closer to how he’s explained his position in the past. In [an interview with CBS’ Scott Pelley](http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/trump-calls-nafta-a-disaster/) last September, Trump said he thought the North American Free Trade Agreement was a “disaster” and that, if he were president, he would “end” it on the grounds that “\[w\]e’re being defrauded by all these countries.” When Pelley asked Trump if he were in favor of free trade, which is a long-standing plank of the Republican Party’s platform—right up there with “lower taxes” and “gun rights”—Trump said he thought we needed “fair trade, not free trade.” “We need fair trade,” he said again. “It’s got to be fair.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] The next Commander in Chief is standing on this stage. On Tuesday night I watched story time with Barack Obama and I gotta tell you, it sounded like everything in the world was going amazing... Hillary Clinton would be a national security disaster. She wouldn't just be a disaster. Hilary Clinton is disqualified from being Commander and Chief of the United States. Well Maria, thank you for passing on that hit piece on the front page of the New York Times. [ APPLAUSE ] And the entire New York Times attack is that I disclosed that loan on one filing with the United States Senate that was a public filing, but it was not on a second filing with the FEC. Both of those filings were public. Ted Cruz And yes I made a paper work error disclosing it on one piece of paper instead of the other but if that's the best hit the New York Times has got they better go back to the well. On the issue of citizenship Donald I'm not going to use your mother's birth against you. Donald Trump >> In the last three polls I'm beating you so you shouldn't misrepresent how well your doing. I win I choose him as my vice presidential candidate and the Democrats sue because we can't take him along for the ride. I hate to interrupt this episode of Court Tv [ LAUGH ] but the real. I like Chris Christie, but we can not have a president of the United States that supports common core. We cannot afford to have a president of the United States that supports gun control [ APPLAUSE ] South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is out of the race but he joins us tonight in the audience Is this America anymore? Do we still have standards? You know, we have a war on virtually everything. Race wars. gender wars, income wars. Every war you can imagine, we have people at each other's throats. And our strength is actually in our unity. I also want to recognize the people in that church that showed the grace of God, and the grace of forgiveness, and the mercy they showed. [ APPLAUSE ] i don't know if any of us could've done what they did, one after another, within 48 hours of that tragedy taking place. The guns don't pull the trigger, it's the people that pull the trigger [ APPLAUSE ] And we have to find out what is going on. The Second Amendment is not an option, because criminals don't buy their guns from a gun show. And let me tell you, ISIS and terrorists do not get their guns from a gun show. This [ APPLAUSE ] Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal, are pro- abortion, are pro gay marriage, focus around money and the media. Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I'm just saying. [ LAUGH ] When the World Trade Center came down I saw something that no place on Earth could've handled more beautifully, more humanly than New York and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorker's and I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made. [ APPLAUSE ] I said from the beginning That we should take no Syrian refugees of any kind. If we do not know who you are and we do not know why you are coming, when I am President, you are not getting into the United States of America. [ APPLAUSE ] This was a question on entitlements [ CROSSTALK ]. [ APPLAUSE ] Oh, I'll ask the entitlement question [ CROSSTALK ]. And the reason. No, you're. Already had your chance, Mark, and you blew it. But here's the thing. If I become President, I couldn't care less about my company. It's peanuts. I have Ivanka and Eric and Don sitting there. Run the company, kids. Have a good time. I'm gonna do it for America. [ APPLAUSE ] I saw you on the Senate floor flip your vote on crop insurance cuz they told you it would help you in Iowa. And last week, we all saw you flip your vote on ethanol in Iowa. [ APPLAUSE ] Iowa, for the same reason. That is not consistent conservatism. That is political calculation. This last back- and- forth between two sen -, two back bench senators. You know, it explains why we have the mess in Washington, D. C. We need a president that will fix our immigration laws and stick with it, not bend with the wind. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4181999/donald-trump-tariff-free-trade/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4181999/donald-trump-tariff-free-trade/"},"headline":"Donald Trump, Tariff-Supporting Free Trader","datePublished":"2016-01-15T05:22:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:41:27.790Z","description":"If Trump is actually saying that he wants to impose tariffs on China and Japan, then that's fine. 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