On Thursday, Republican vice presidential candidate and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance defended his tax proposal after CNBC’s Joe Kernen likened it to the “industrial policy” that Democrats are often criticized for.

During “Squawk Box,” Kernen indicated that there might be a difference between Vance’s and Republican nominee Donald Trump’s economic views, citing Vance’s earlier suggestion to increase the corporate tax rate.

Vance clarified that his proposal aims to lower corporate taxes for companies creating jobs in the U.S., while those outsourcing jobs would face higher taxes.

“Well what I said is that we need to lower taxes on corporations that are creating jobs in this country and raise tariffs that are shipping jobs overseas and manufacturing overseas,” Vance said. “Look, if you’re trying to take advantage of Chinese slave labor and then use American markets to make a profit on your product, I think, and I know Donald Trump thinks, that we should penalize these companies. But we want companies that are investing in America, hiring in American and creating good American jobs to thrive. But we gotta recognize there’s a fundamental different between a national corporation in this country and a foreign corporation that is benefiting from slave labor.”

Kernen compared Vance’s position to a populist belief commonly supported by Democrats.

“This sounds like industrial policy that Democrats get criticized for,” Kernen said, to which Vance pushed back on.

“Oh, no, it’s not. Look, whatever you want to call it, man, the problem is, look, Chinese slaves making $2 a day, and they get caned working 72 hours a week if they want to work 70 hours a week instead,” Vance said. “You want to allow American manufacturers to benefit from that cheap labor? Not only is it going to destroy good American jobs and wages, it’s going to decimate our core manufacturing industry, which I think makes us less productive over time.”

Before becoming Trump’s running mate, the Ohio senator opposed Trump’s proposal to reduce the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%. In May, Vance told Semafor that the rate did not need further reduction.

Vance argued that American jobs and wages are negatively impacted by corporations exploiting cheap Chinese labor and stressed the need for trade policies that benefit American workers.

“Now Donald Trump does believe in trade, and I believe in trade,” Vance said. “But we leave in trade that’s actually going to benefit American workers, not destroy American jobs. So, the final point is look, as you’ve seen on this campaign, there have been a lot of outside groups who try to claim that President Trump or I agree with every single thing that they say. President Trump speaks for himself, and I speak for myself. So, don’t necessarily assume that everything you read about me or him is true, obviously they lie about him quite a bit. But he really does believe, and he’s been right about this for 40 years, we have to make more of our own stuff, we have to build on America and we need corporate tax policy that promotes that, and yeah, sometimes that does mean, if you’re shipping jobs overseas, you’re gonna be penalized for it.”