Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Live fifty two is our time here in Houston's morning news.
Right Trump's six point plan for making America read again.
It's an American thinker, And interestingly enough, the first thing
they start with is what happened yesterday on Liberation Day,
the tariffs and sending a quote unquote wake up call
to Europe, which with a twenty percent tariff. I guess
they got their wake up calls. Stephen Helgeson joins US
(00:23):
former ambassador and writer, Welcome on board, SIRT. Do you
think that was intended to be a wake up call
for Europe?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Absolutely, and good morning Houston. It was a big wake
up called. The newspapers, the television. Everyone over here in Denmark,
where I'm living now is talking about it and worried
about it, wringing their hands and wondering what to do next.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Well, how about they just dropped the twenty you know,
drop their own tariffs because these are reciprocal. We're only
doing it at twenty percent because Europe taxes so many
of our things, tariffs so many of our things at
very high rates.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You're absolutely right. For decades, we've been trying, through the
US Trade Representative's office and through other means to convince
the Europeans to drop their tariffs lower them anyway on
such essentral items such as automobiles. As an example, the
Europeans apply to ten percent tariff on American made automobiles
(01:18):
coming into Europe, while we in the United States only
apply a two and a half percent tariff. That's just
one out of many items or categories that are in
dispute right now. And the real question is how is
Europe going to react. Are they simply going to go
tit for tat and have another round of reciprocal tariff
wars or are they going to say, well, you know,
(01:41):
we'll think about this and maybe we need to make
some adjustments. I'm hoping it's the latter, but it is
part of, in my view, a six point planned by
the President to make sure that we're a little more
respective overseas when it comes to trade, and use some
of that money to help bring it back to the
United States in the form of investments from overseas American
based rather American companies based overseas back to the United
(02:05):
States again. I'm hopeful.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Another big part of what the President wants to do
has to do with energy and our reliance on foreign
nations for energy. I think I do you take it
overall theme of what President Trump seems to want to
do right now, it's about making America self reliant.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Again, absolutely. I mean, if we're not self reliant in energy,
and Texas, Texas knows this. If we're not self reliant
on energy, we're relying on everybody else. We cannot be
in that position. Neither can we be in that position.
When it comes to manufacturing. We've allowed our manufacturing sector
to be exported over to China as the number one source.
(02:44):
When it comes to small run contract manufacturing, we've kind
of bring those companies back to the US of A.
But energy is the one underlying expense that fuels no
pun intended every other price rise. So once we get
that stabilized and can start improving our electric grid a
little bit better, we can think in the future about
(03:06):
some alternative forms of energy. But fossil fuels are a
necessity right now.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
You think that's on the president's agenda. By the way,
I know this piece of American thinker thinks that eventually
that's what President Trump wants to do. He wants to
do a major upgrade to the country's infrastructure, but he
has all these other things he needs to put into
place first.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, we have to do many things at once. And
one of the things that the President I believe wants
to do is reverse that terrible order executive order that
Joe Biden signed the first day in office, the deep
sixing the Keystone Pipeline. We have a big country. It
runs on energy, and without the energy that is supplied
(03:47):
by our own domestic sources and from some foreign sources,
we're in trouble. We're totally dependent on everyone else. Look
at Europe and being totally or partially at least dependent
on the former Soviet unions apply to supply natural gas
to some customers in Western Europe. That can't be our future.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
You know one thing I was really surprised by on
these terraffs. Obviously he put big tariffs on the worst defenders.
Some of the worst defenders are supposedly our friends and allies, Japan.
He had to put a twenty four percent tariff on
Japanese products Taiwan. I mean, where would Taiwan be without
the United States and we had to put a thirty
two percent tariff on them.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You're absolutely right that defies description. In my opinion, Taiwan
is a very important ally really to the United States
when it comes to the production of semiconductor chips. Without
the semiconductor companies or excuse me, manufacturing fabs as they
call them in Taiwan, we'd be up the creek without
(04:49):
a paddle when it comes to computers and the next
generation of electronic devices. So Taiwan is critical. And our
friendship with Japan goes back to post war or Japan,
and we've helped the Japanese as they've helped us throughout
the past. The Japanese have really done an awful lot
(05:10):
to increase their investment in the United States, especially in
terms of producing automobiles of Japanese labels you could say Honda, Toyota, etc.
In the US of A. So, yeah, the pies description,
I will give you that.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
All right. The ambassador, thanks for joining us today. Sure
do appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Thank you, and God blessed. Take care.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Steven Helgeson, former ambassador and writer, joining us here on
news radio seven forty k TRH
Live fifty two is our time here in Houston's morning news.
Right Trump's six point plan for making America read again.
It's an American thinker, And interestingly enough, the first thing
they start with is what happened yesterday on Liberation Day,
the tariffs and sending a quote unquote wake up call
to Europe, which with a twenty percent tariff. I guess
they got their wake up calls. Stephen Helgeson joins US
(00:23):
former ambassador and writer, Welcome on board, SIRT. Do you
think that was intended to be a wake up call
for Europe?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Absolutely, and good morning Houston. It was a big wake
up called. The newspapers, the television. Everyone over here in Denmark,
where I'm living now is talking about it and worried
about it, wringing their hands and wondering what to do next.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Well, how about they just dropped the twenty you know,
drop their own tariffs because these are reciprocal. We're only
doing it at twenty percent because Europe taxes so many
of our things, tariffs so many of our things at
very high rates.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You're absolutely right. For decades, we've been trying, through the
US Trade Representative's office and through other means to convince
the Europeans to drop their tariffs lower them anyway on
such essentral items such as automobiles. As an example, the
Europeans apply to ten percent tariff on American made automobiles
(01:18):
coming into Europe, while we in the United States only
apply a two and a half percent tariff. That's just
one out of many items or categories that are in
dispute right now. And the real question is how is
Europe going to react. Are they simply going to go
tit for tat and have another round of reciprocal tariff
wars or are they going to say, well, you know,
(01:41):
we'll think about this and maybe we need to make
some adjustments. I'm hoping it's the latter, but it is
part of, in my view, a six point planned by
the President to make sure that we're a little more
respective overseas when it comes to trade, and use some
of that money to help bring it back to the
United States in the form of investments from overseas American
based rather American companies based overseas back to the United
(02:05):
States again. I'm hopeful.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Another big part of what the President wants to do
has to do with energy and our reliance on foreign
nations for energy. I think I do you take it
overall theme of what President Trump seems to want to
do right now, it's about making America self reliant.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Again, absolutely. I mean, if we're not self reliant in energy,
and Texas, Texas knows this. If we're not self reliant
on energy, we're relying on everybody else. We cannot be
in that position. Neither can we be in that position.
When it comes to manufacturing. We've allowed our manufacturing sector
to be exported over to China as the number one source.
(02:44):
When it comes to small run contract manufacturing, we've kind
of bring those companies back to the US of A.
But energy is the one underlying expense that fuels no
pun intended every other price rise. So once we get
that stabilized and can start improving our electric grid a
little bit better, we can think in the future about
(03:06):
some alternative forms of energy. But fossil fuels are a
necessity right now.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
You think that's on the president's agenda. By the way,
I know this piece of American thinker thinks that eventually
that's what President Trump wants to do. He wants to
do a major upgrade to the country's infrastructure, but he
has all these other things he needs to put into
place first.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, we have to do many things at once. And
one of the things that the President I believe wants
to do is reverse that terrible order executive order that
Joe Biden signed the first day in office, the deep
sixing the Keystone Pipeline. We have a big country. It
runs on energy, and without the energy that is supplied
(03:47):
by our own domestic sources and from some foreign sources,
we're in trouble. We're totally dependent on everyone else. Look
at Europe and being totally or partially at least dependent
on the former Soviet unions apply to supply natural gas
to some customers in Western Europe. That can't be our future.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
You know one thing I was really surprised by on
these terraffs. Obviously he put big tariffs on the worst defenders.
Some of the worst defenders are supposedly our friends and allies, Japan.
He had to put a twenty four percent tariff on
Japanese products Taiwan. I mean, where would Taiwan be without
the United States and we had to put a thirty
two percent tariff on them.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You're absolutely right that defies description. In my opinion, Taiwan
is a very important ally really to the United States
when it comes to the production of semiconductor chips. Without
the semiconductor companies or excuse me, manufacturing fabs as they
call them in Taiwan, we'd be up the creek without
(04:49):
a paddle when it comes to computers and the next
generation of electronic devices. So Taiwan is critical. And our
friendship with Japan goes back to post war or Japan,
and we've helped the Japanese as they've helped us throughout
the past. The Japanese have really done an awful lot
(05:10):
to increase their investment in the United States, especially in
terms of producing automobiles of Japanese labels you could say Honda, Toyota, etc.
In the US of A. So, yeah, the pies description,
I will give you that.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
All right. The ambassador, thanks for joining us today. Sure
do appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Thank you, and God blessed. Take care.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Steven Helgeson, former ambassador and writer, joining us here on
news radio seven forty k TRH
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