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On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) proposed charging China a fee for failing to impose its environmental laws of about 20%, which is “a tariff, but we’re already paying for this. We’re paying for all of the pollution control that we have to put in place because of their pollution.”

Host Maria Bartiromo asked, [relevant exchange begins around 5:20] “Well, how worried are you about the impact of tariffs? President Trump is already sending messages to China, Mexico, and Canada. Do you believe that these tariffs will help growth, or do you expect that we could have an issue with regard to inflation, making prices higher for Americans?”

Cassidy responded, “Well, one thing I’ve been proposing is what I call a farm pollution fee, and some in the administration have similarly advocated for it. Right now, China does not enforce its environmental laws. They let their pollutants go into the atmosphere, where [they blow] over onto the United States. It lowers their cost of manufacturing by 20%. That lower cost attracts our jobs, our manufacturers to go to China, that’s wrong. So, I think that we should put a fee on their goods, roughly equal to what they’re not spending to control their pollutants. So, what they’re not spending, put that fee, it levels the playing field, makes it more likely jobs come back to the U.S., our workers do better, our economy does better. It’s a tariff, but we’re already paying for this. We’re paying for all of the pollution control that we have to put in place because of their pollution.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett