President Donald Trump’s nominee for US trade representative is telling lawmakers he would seek to restore the nation’s “hard power” by using trade policy to revitalize manufacturing and counter “global volatility.

Thursday’s hearing wasn’t a sign of congressional action — it was a political weather vane, showing which way the politics is blowing. And the message to Trump’s pick for trade representative was: Don't apply big tariffs on Canada.

The man likely to be named the United States' chief trade negotiator argued Thursday that President Donald Trump's tariff threat against Canada is about fentanyl trafficking as he faced questions about the levies from Republicans and Democrats.