AKRON, N.Y. -- The president officially announced Thursday the United States will move forward with a 25 percent tax on steel import and a 10 percent tariff for aluminum.
"Donald Trump has set the stage. He's negotiating from a position of strength, not weakness, and that strength is for jobs in the United States, good jobs, manufacturing jobs," Rep. Chris Collins, R-NY-27, said.
After backlash, Trump did exclude Canada and Mexico. Collins said he did so with the end goal of finally disolving and renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"As he has said, I'm going to not impose the tariffs on steel and aluminum in Mexico and Canada as long as we can continue and end up with a successful bilateral agreement with Mexico, a separate bilateral agreement with Canada," Collins said.
Despite the exemptions, House Speaker Paul Ryan still believes the policy is too broad. Collins said the leader of his conference and other critics are shortsighted.
"I think too many people in Congress are looking at this November's election and not much beyond that but if you look at a long view, and I'm talking 50 years, 20 years, you look at the future of America for our children and grandchildren, we need good jobs here," he said.
For the short-term, Collins said he's not worried about the impact on U.S. manufacturers that use foreign steel and aluminum. He said he doesn't expect them to have to cut jobs or even lose profits.
"They would raise their prices three percent, as I've just said. It's a level playing field," Collins said. "They're not going to lose market share because everyone's going to be paying the same thing."
The Republican said he's also not concerned about the threats of retaliation from many nations nor the prospect of a trade war.
"I say bring it on. We have a trade deficit with you. Your country depends on our consumers. You want to bring on a war? Guess who wins," he said.
Collins said if other countries, particularly in the European Union, want to start to negotiating, they're free to come to the table.