Rep. Linda Sánchez, a pro-labor Democrat from Whittier, said this week that while tariffs can be useful for targeting certain industries of concern, blanket tariffs end up hurting everyday Americans.
President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China have divided Congress. While Trump paused tariffs on Mexico and Canada in exchange for border security promises, the 10% tariff on China is in place.
At a Politico event this week, Sánchez, a ranking member on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, said there are “certain industries we’ve been concerned about for some time” where tariffs could be used to target them. When asked for specifics, Sánchez said some countries flood U.S. markets with artificially cheap goods produced under forced labor, subsidization policies or poor environmental standards.
“Tariffs can help counteract these imbalances, allowing American companies and workers — who adhere to higher wage and labor standards — to compete,” she said.
She said Trump’s “broad tariffs” on all imports will only “spook the markets” and leave business owners and farmers wondering, “What’s next?”
“Prices are going to go up for U.S. consumers, and the No. 1 pledge that Trump made … was that he was going to bring down the cost of everyday goods,” she said.
Sánchez is a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 441, a labor union in Orange County, according to her bio. The sixth of seven children born to immigrant parents from Mexico, her father worked as an industrial machinist and mechanic at a plastics and rubber plant.
Sánchez is also a former labor lawyer.
Coming from a union background, Sánchez said she supports trade agreements that don’t harm the domestic industry or create job losses for American workers.
“I feel like I’m in a unique position to try to bridge the gap between the progressive wing of our caucus and the more free-trade centered part of our caucus in that I understand these trade issues and the impacts that they have on workers,” she said.
One area of potential bipartisan cooperation is on fixing “de minimis,” a rule that lets small packages valued under $800 enter the U.S. without being taxed or subject to customs duties.
Sánchez said there needs to be a “comprehensive solution” to de minimis in federal law.
For example, when it comes to fentanyl, which the Trump administration has pointed to as a key reason for imposing tariffs, drug traffickers have exploited the de minimis rule to bring fentanyl into the U.S. without screening, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Sign up for Down Ballot, our Southern California politics email newsletter. Subscribe here.The federal agency said the rapid growth of de minimis shipments — which make up 92% of U.S. imports — along with less thorough screening compared to larger shipments, has created an opportunity for traffickers to exploit the system.
This loophole, Sánchez said, “allows foreign bad actors to ship fentanyl and the tools necessary to produce it with less scrutiny directly to American homes.”
“Most of the fentanyl that comes into this country doesn’t come through the Canadian border, nor does it come on the backs of immigrants who are coming through the Southern border,” said Sánchez. “They come through the ports of entry.”
Sánchez said Congress needs to address transshipment, where goods are routed through a third country or port to bypass tariffs or import restrictions, in order to resolve the issue.
For example, if goods made in China are sent to a country with lower tariffs, then those goods might be re-labeled and shipped into the U.S. as if they came from that third country to avoid the higher taxes.
Even among Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, there is concern that tariffs will hit American consumers with high prices. McConnell, in a recent CBS “60 Minutes” interview, warned that tariffs will drive up the costs of everything.
Sánchez also took aim at tariffs in Trump’s first term. “Tariffs are a tool; they are not a weapon,” she said during her State of the Nation address in Norwalk in 2018.
She argued that broad tariffs hurt both “friends” and “cheaters of trade.”
“We can find balanced trade policies that promote fairness and protect the workers, but we can’t do that by just broadly slapping tariffs on products meant to punish the cheaters of trade, but we’re also punishing our friends who don’t cheat in trade,” she said.
Sánchez represents California’s 38th Congressional District, which includes portions of Los Angeles and Orange counties.
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