President Donald Trump suspended tariffs he imposed this week on Canada and Mexico, telling reporters the decision was to protect American farmers, but the threat of imposing tariffs is still on the table. North Carolina Senator Ted Budd wants to remind Americans that the tariffs President Trump imposed are usually meant to reflect those our trading partners have imposed on us.

“We’re just matching what other people have been doing us for years, and hopefully we can it will remind these countries that we can move towards free trade or less tariffs, and let’s start working them back down to zero, but this is a result of them treating us unfairly for years.”

Budd says the tariffs are a tool the President is using a means to an end.

“I don’t like tariffs. I would say, you know, from an economic perspective, probably President Trump doesn’t even like tariffs. But if other countries for decades have been unfair to the US as far as receiving our exports into them, then we need to deal with that in kind.”

And as such, he says the ball is in their court.

“You want to take these down to zero, you want to not have tariffs, even you want to free trade. Will do that. You just need to lower your taxes. We will lower our tariffs as well, and we’ll have free trade among us. And so I think that’s where we ultimately need to go.”