♪♪ >> unfiltered with c-span. experience history as it unfolds c-span's live coverage this month as republicans take control of both chambers of congress and a new chapter begins for the swearing in of the 47th president of the united states. on monday january 22 and forward live all day coverage for the presidential inauguration is donald trump takes the oath of office becoming president of the united states. stay with c-span this month for comprehensive, live, unfiltered coverage of the congress and presidential inauguration. c-span, unfiltered. >> c-span, democracy unfiltered. funded by these television companies and more including comcast. >> just a community center, no,

it is way more than tha >> comcast is partnering with thousands of community centers for students in low income families. >> comcast support c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> we are joined by representative adrian smith republican of nebraska. he is the ways and means subcommittee chair nt serves the third district of the state. representative smith, thank you for joining us. >> great to be here. good morning. >> as chair, geton your thoughts on how it should be applied in the united states. >> tariffs are something that have been around a long time. we found out, you know, they can have a great impact in various times. impacting the economy as well. overall, i cannot say i'm a huge fan of tariffs, but i do believe they need to be a tool in the toolbox as negotiations take

place. it is very important that we are tough negotiators to level the playing field. >> when you say you are not a huge fan is it because of the ultimate impact on the economy or other reasons. >> potential, certainly. representing a lot of agriculture we do not really like ito when other countries place tariffs on our products and we are good exporters of agriculture products. let's face it. other countries tend to like our quality and price and value. we do not like them to place tariffs on us. that said, we need to keep our options on the table as negotiations move forward. >> as president elect trump has talked about a variety of ways to approach tariffs and wants to approach certain things, generally what do you think of the approach he is seeking. >> i think it is important that we drive a tough negotiation. and, you know,w, i've shared ths with a lot of folks that we need to level the playing field. make no mistake. i thinknk what we have seen over

the last four years and the lack of action, in fact, some of my colleagues just yesterday and committee criticized tariffs now that trump is coming back in even though nothing has been said aboutly tariffs over the lt four years. let me say even more importantly , such a lack of action on trade across the board for the last four years. that inaction i think is especially damaging because our competitors, our trade partners expect more from the united states of america what they've seen in the last four years. >> specifically, what would you like to see the administration due to the country when it comes to the policy. >> take kenya for example, the previous trump administration teed up a trade agreement with kenya. kenya already enjoys the benefits of the growth and opportunity act. an important policy. can you enjoys those benefits basically tariff relief.

other aspectsth of trade with kenya that we could benefit from in terms of market access. agriculture being one of those. the trumpmp administration teedp the traded agreement with kenya. the biden w administration comes in and says we will talk about trade, but not tariffs. i cannot understand why that is been the case when, like i said, kenya army benefits. let's talk about market access and how we, our exporters in the united states can get their products into a country such as kenya on a continent that is growing in population that is what separates africa from some of the other continent's growing population. >> those countries, china would come to the top of the list on how we apply those tariffs. what is the benefit of applying tariffs going forward? >> well, the details can be very fine on all of trade. trade is a lot of work.

with growing technology, diversifying economies, that makes trade even more difficult. digital, for e example. that is important. theds u.s. leads the world in digital trade. other countries say, wow, that is a great source of revenue, especially if it only comes from another country. that can be damaging in various ways. among them, access to information in the flow of information. that is important as well. china, as a competitor, let's face it, they are engaging in places around the world where we are not. that is a problem. i think we stand to see a vigorous vigorous engagement in theng incoming administration especially in contrast to the outgoing administration. >> talking about reducing the amountf