Howard Lutnick Makes Bananas Claim About Bananas
Some days, it just feels like Howard Lutnick's job is to provide punchlines for House Democrats. Most days, in fact.
Source: Indy 100
Representative Madeleine Dean grilled Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Thursday (June 5), at a House Appropriations Committee, demanding to know why American people should have to suffer price hikes on the price of produce like bananas due to tariffs.
Although Trump's administration hope to use tariffs as a means to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. there are certain things that simply can't be made in the states.
Lutnick tried to brush off concerns over the price of bananas saying that "If you build in America there will be no tariff," but Dean soon clapped back, pointing out the obvious.
An interesting bit of timing too, as Chiquita just fired their entire workforce in Panama due to a strike. The workers seemed to think that better working conditions and healthcare were needed. The American banana giant disagreed and did what any responsible multinational would do in their place: they fired all 6,500 workers and management. No union, no problems. So, American consumers can now expect higher prices.