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Robert E. Rubin, left, and Paul A. Volcker issued an op-ed article averring that new United States tariffs on steel and aluminum would come at the expense of its allies.
CreditMartha Rial for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Two moderates in the Democratic fold and Republican administrations past, Paul A. Volcker and Robert E. Rubin, have banded together for the first time since their tenures as chairman of the Federal Reserve and Treasury secretary, respectively, to publicly oppose a key part of President Trump’s policy agenda: new tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Their critique of the tariffs, which were announced by the president last week, was published in an op-ed article in The New York Times on Tuesday.
At this juncture, we are deeply troubled by the Administration’s proposal to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports — one of four prongs in a planned comprehensive “National Security Strategy” to be announced next week. We strongly support regular and rational reviews of whether isolationist trade policies, such as tariff provisions, have had their intended effects or have caused unanticipated harms that may call for a change. Such review processes are at the core of good policy.
Tariff increases, long the weapon of last resort in international negotiations, are already causing collateral damage. The threatened 10 to 25 percent tariffs on aluminum and steel imports are intended to address national security vulnerabilities. But our military capabilities and many other goods and services we determine to be national priorities depend vitally on trade and foreign suppliers, and thus also suffer from retaliatory responses from our trading partners.
However, their statement downplays the fact that the administration has been holding secret meetings with both steel and aluminum industry executives for months to discuss ways to curb overall production capacity. This includes using federal powers, outside of the typical trade arena, to possibly limit supply through measures such as new safeguard protection or outright capacity limits.
Mr. Volcker, 91, served as chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987. Mr. Rubin, 74, was Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1999. In private equity, Mr. Rubin is co-chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, in addition to serving on the corporate boards of several blue-chip American companies and as co-chairman of the National Finance Committee of the Democratic campaign to defeat President Trump in 2020.
Both men have long rubbed their hands in the calcified, inside-the-Beltway ways of the Republican establishment, and are perhaps the last pair of Republican-leaning foreign policy and financial policy elites one might have expected to leaven a Washington viewed through D.C. lens.
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How did Paul A. Volcker and Robert E. Rubin, former Democratic and Republican officials, oppose President Trump’s planned steel and aluminum tariffs, according to their op-ed article in The New York Times?
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