The Senate voted 51–45, along party lines, on Tuesday evening to confirm Howard Lutnick as the next Commerce secretary. In his confirmation hearing last month, Mr. Lutnick defended President Trump’s plan to impose broad tariffs. “We are treated horribly by the global trading environment. They all have higher tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and subsidies,” he told the Senate Commerce Committee. “They treat us poorly. We need to be treated better. We need to be treated with respect, and we can use tariffs to create reciprocity, fairness and respect.” Mr. Lutnick, a wealthy donor and former CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, said it was “nonsense” that tariffs cause inflation, pointing to India and China, which he said have some of the highest tariffs and “no inflation.” “A particular product’s price may go up,” he conceded, but said tariffs would not cause broad inflation. “It is just nonsense to say that tariffs cause inflation.”
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