WASHINGTON — Houston-area Rep. Kevin Brady turned to Texas on Thursday in his high-wire act of urging President Donald Trump to take caution on the trade front.

The House Ways and Means chairman brought before his powerful panel a manufacturer from his district that is already feeling the pain of the steep steel and aluminum tariffs that Trump announced last month, the first of several trade escalations between the U.S. and China.

Kevin Kennedy, president of Kennedy Fabricating, didn't mince words, saying that the import levies are "shifting our jobs and work outside of the U.S."

"What was presented as a tariff on foreign steel has effectively become a tax on U.S. manufacturers like us," he said, explaining that his Splendora-based company has seen raw steel prices increase up to 40 percent.

While Brady's committee also heard testimony from U.S. steel producers benefiting from the new tariffs, the Republican from The Woodlands left little doubt about where he stands.

"We know that tariffs are, after all, taxes, and will ultimately be passed onto consumers," he said. "Like taxes, they also curtail economic growth, discourage new investment, delay new hiring and put American workers at a huge disadvantage to foreign competitors."

Why this is important

Brady has walked a fine line in trying to tame Trump on trade.

He's said the president is right to tackle unfairly traded goods and encouraged the White House to confront China over intellectual property violations. But he's said the U.S. should be selective in its approach, stressing the potential harm that tariffs can have on businesses and consumers.

Brady's style isn't to butt heads with Trump by using overheated rhetoric.

But Thursday's hearing was a sly way to get his point across. Consider these questions that the avowed free trader asked Kennedy: How did the tariffs undermine any improved competitiveness from the tax cuts? Do these tariffs help you sell more made-in-America products overseas?

The approach even won praise from Rep. Lloyd Doggett, an Austin Democrat on the panel who often clashes with Brady.

"You got it about right," he said.

Where things stand on the trade front

The steel and aluminum tariffs are now in effect.

But the U.S. has temporarily exempted most major trading partners, save for China and Japan. Hundreds of U.S. companies — including, no doubt, many in Texas — are also in the process of asking for product-specific exclusions from the levies.

The U.S. and China have also threatened each other with billions of dollars of additional tariffs, sparking the prospect of a trade war that has Texas' agriculture industry and others on edge.

What the steel industry is saying

The overall message is that Trump's trade action is long overdue.

Roger Newport, chief executive of an Ohio-based steel producer, told Brady on Thursday that the steel industry has taken the brunt of the "unfair trade practices over several decades." He predicted that it's "only a matter of time before others are afflicted by unfair trade."

Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, added that the current approach, while imperfect, is "necessary to bring about meaningful negotiations."

"The only progress the U.S. has ever made with serial trade cheats has been the result of extraordinary pressure applied by Congress and the administration, including, but not limited to, the threat of tariffs," he said.

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Check out the prepared remarks of Brady, the House Ways and Means chairman; Kennedy, the Texas manufacturer; Newport, the Ohio steel producer; and Paul, the Alliance for American Manufacturing president.

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