Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said he was “hopeful” President Donald Trump is doing the right things on trade with China

At the G20 summit, Trump put tariffs on hold while he negotiates with China.

Brown said, “I can’t tell. I think it’s important to step back and understand why all of this with China — and that is that half the world’s steel capacity is in China, half the world’s aluminum smelting capability is in China. They’ve had a history — decades of cheating on trade rules.”

He continued, “The whole point of tariffs is the tariffs are a temporary tool to reach a negotiation and to make change with Chinese-U.S. Relationships and what we’re doing with trade policy.”

He added, “I’m hopeful–it’s not clear to me yet that the president’s done this right, but I’m hopeful, from the early stages of this.”

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