In prepared remarks, Yellen panned high, universal tariffs as inflationary and harmful to American businesses, saying “sweeping, untargeted tariffs would raise prices for American families and make our businesses less competitive.”
Her remarks come after a contentious interview between Trump and Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait.
“It’s going to have a massive effect — positive effect. It’s going to be a positive effect,” Trump asserted earlier this week. “It must be hard for you to spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you’re totally wrong.”
Trump has variously proposed instituting general tariffs at the level of 10 percent and 20 percent.
However, Yellen cautioned specifically against “[going] it alone,” warning of the risks posed by alienating U.S. allies with steep tariffs.
“The issues we face today, from broken supply chains, to climate change and global pandemic preparedness, to China’s industrial overcapacity, also mean we cannot simply draw from an old playbook,” Yellen will argue.
The Hill’s Tobias Burns has more here.
