CNBC’s Jim Cramer blasted free trade agreements Thursday, reiterating his long-held views against the approach to trade policy that for decades has been embraced by the American business and finance communities. “I am pro-tariff, absolutely. I hate free trade,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.” “I think it’s been an embarrassment for our country. It’s cost us fortunes. Everybody picks on us. There’s just no end to it.” Cramer’s comments came one day after President Donald Trump announced plans to impose a 25% tariff on automobiles and certain auto parts made outside the U.S. Next week, Trump also is expected to unveil a set of so-called “reciprocal tariffs,” which his recent comments suggest may be softer than initially feared. Trump has already implemented steeper tariffs — a tax on imported goods — on Canada, Mexico and China since returning to the White House in January. While Trump pledged to hike tariffs on the campaign trail, his shifting trade policy in office has weighed on business and consumer confidence, and contributed to increased volatility on Wall Street. The stock market in recent weeks sold off hard on economic and tariff concerns, though the S & P 500 has recovered somewhat from its mid-March low. The broad equity index was modestly higher Thursday. For years, Cramer has expressed skepticism of free trade policies, including during Trump’s first and ultimately successful presidential campaign in 2016. Cramer also supported Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports during his first term. “If we’re going to trade jobs for cheap stuff, at the very least we should get a good exchange rate,” Cramer said in late 2019. To be sure, Cramer has taken issue with certain aspects of Trump’s tariff policies this time around and said the uncertainty has hurt the stock market. For example, he suggested in a recent column for CNBC Investing Club members that he believes a more targeted approach to implementing import duties would be desirable. On Thursday, Cramer, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs and ran a hedge fund before his financial media career, acknowledged that he has personally benefited from the rise of globalization. “I am a big winner from it,” he said. Still, he said the decline of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. has had a pronounced effect on certain parts of the country. “We favor cheap stuff in this country, but at a certain point, we also wrecked our small towns, and that’s what I’m focused on,” he said. In a post Thursday on the social media site X, Cramer shed light on the origins of his trade views.
