Sunshine Sentinel

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined The Ingraham Angle to discuss companies using the de minimis loophole to ship slave-made products to America. See below for highlights and watch the full interview on YouTube and Rumble.

On companies using the de minimis loophole to ship slave-made products to America:

“We've got to fix it in terms of legislation, but it's actually our position that it's being abused right now, that Commerce could be doing something about it. We actually sent them a letter arguing that, and we tied that to the bill that I passed late last year in the last Congress, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which is another thing that they're going around here. 

“There's no way you're making this stuff at the prices they're selling it for and not using cheap and or free labor. Of course it's so cheap. They're not paying these people. They're forcing people to work under horrific conditions, and everyone's turning a blind eye to it, although…there's growing awareness about it.

“But there's something broader here. Some time ago, maybe 25 years ago, people in both parties made this decision that we were living in this new world now, post-Cold War, and it didn't matter where things were made anymore. We were all just consumers of this global economy and citizens of the world. But place matters. Country matters. We're starting to see why. The pandemic reminded us of it. But we need to be able to make things in America. If we can't make things, we won't be a powerful and prosperous country much longer.”

On opposition to eliminating the de minimis loophole:

“There's a lot of powerful lobbying interest groups that will come out against it. The Chamber of Commerce [will come out against it]. Even when we did the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, we had Nike and all kinds of companies that weren't doing [anything] publicly, they weren't running any commercials during the Super Bowl about their opposition to our bill, but they were working to kill it. 

“In a laboratory, [completely free markets] is how the economy should work. The problem is we don't live in a laboratory. We live in a real world where people need jobs, stable, good paying jobs. You need jobs so you can have a family, so you can have community, the kinds of things that countries need in order to survive and thrive. 

“We need to start thinking about the market as a way to serve the country, as opposed to the country existing to serve the market. I'm for the free market. I hate socialism, and I despise communism. But we have to have a market that works for us.” 

Original source can be found here.