St. Mary's congressman backed President Donald Trump's trade policies in an interview Friday, even the policy that could sting a major local industry.
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre, said the challenges will be overcome as "a new normal" emerges in trade relations.
Higgins toured St. Mary business Thursday and Friday, including shipyards and Hanagriff Metal Ship in Franklin. The shipbuilders, whose contracts have been a boon for the parish economy during the oil price downturn, stand to pay more for steel and aluminum because of the tariffs Trump announced in the spring. About 800 people work in St. Mary shipbuilding, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The president, using trade authority created to protect national security by shielding key industries from competition, announced tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum in March. Major trading partners including Canada and the European Union were exempted at first, but by summer the exemptions were eliminated.
Tariffs offer an advantage to domestic steel and aluminum producers but can raise prices for consumers and for industries like shipbuilding that use the metals as a raw material.
Even so, Higgins said, "there's an incredible optimism that's tangible when you go to these places and talk to the Americans working there and the owners and administrators of our large metal fabricators."
The congressman has described Trump as "a hell of a negotiator" who wants to even trade imbalances accumulated over decades.
"(Top trading partners) have had access to the No. 1 retail market in the world with virtually no balance regarding tariffs and taxes coming in compared to products going out to their markets," Higgins said.
Local shipbuilders and fabricators "have faith, and they have patience," Higgins said.
Other reviews are mixed. One dissent came from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Liberty Street Economics blog, which argues that the president is unlikely to achieve his stated goal of reducing the nation's half-trillion-dollar annual trade deficit.
The reason, the blog's study said, is that while tariffs may reduce imports, increased domestic production costs and retaliatory tariffs could make U.S. exports less attractive overseas.
The study cited one alternative scenario: China's entry into the World Trade Organization framework in 2001. China's lower tariffs under WTO led to rapid increases in both imports and exports, the blog said.
Another trade measure on the Higgins agenda is tougher inspection standards for imported seafood, a long-term headache for Louisiana shrimpers and crawfish producers who must compete with low-cost imports.
A recent U.S. General Accounting Office study found that only about 2 percent of overseas seafood production facilities were tested for safety in 2016, including tests for the residue of drugs commonly used in the seafood farms that account for about half of the seafood imported into the United States.
Higgins' bill would require federal certification that overseas production facilities meet U.S. safety standards. it would also require inspection of at least 20 percent of imported seafood. All of the first 15 shipments from new exporters would have to be inspected.
Exporters caught trying to send substandard products here sometimes do no more than change their name and try to bring the same seafood into the country under a new label, Higgins said.
Higgins, nearing the end of his first two-year term in the House, qualified to run for re-election in November. He's being opposed by fellow Republican Josh Guillory of Youngsville; Democrats "Rob" Anderson of DeQuincy, Mildred "Mimi" Methvin of Lafayette, Larry Rader of New Iberia, and Verone Thomas of Lake Charles; and Libertarian Aaron J. Andrus of Westlake.
Democrats hope to ride an anti-Trump wave back to the House majority in these mid-term elections. Despite a narrower margin in the Senate, Democrats are widely considered to have fewer chances to regain the majority there because so many senators up for election represent states Trump won in 2016.
Higgins predicted that Republicans will lose five to eight seats in the House, where they currently have 236-193 edge with six vacancies. And he thinks the GOP will pick up seats in the Senate to increase their 51-49 edge.