JEFFERSON TWP — The president of Penn United Technologies got a chance Thursday to press the most powerful Republican in the U.S. House on how his members will help President-elect Donald Trump level the playing field for American manufacturers.

Bill Jones said he received an invitation to the CNN town hall after former U.S. Senator and Butler County native Rick Santorum introduced him to CNN reporter Jake Tapper during a phone call.

On Thursday, Jones took his opportunity with a microphone to ask Speaker of the House Paul Ryan how Republicans in Congress would work to support Trump's campaign promise to carve out more favorable trade deals with countries like China, which is a major competitor for U.S. manufacturers.

Jones tapped into his own experience with Penn United over the last decade or more, telling Ryan in Washington that the company had lost “probably hundreds of jobs; our community has lost thousands of jobs.” He pegged as the culprit “unfair” trade deals and a trade imbalance in general — a situation both he and Ryan agreed was being exacerbated by unfair trade practices by other counties.

Jones said Penn United tried, years ago, to do business in China but found the climate there untenable because of border taxes that jacked up the price of their products, while subsidies kept the price of Chinese-made goods artificially low.

“The playing field is not level. Their products come into our market tax free, and our products go into their market taxed heavily,” Jones said in an interview Friday afternoon.

He said Penn United employed about 700 people as of 2001, and was on a trajectory to grow to about 1,000 jobs by now, without the trade imbalances. Instead, Jones said, the maker of precision components currently employs a little more than 500 people.

Jones said he became a Trump supporter after hearing the president-elect's promises to renegotiate trade deals with some countries, as well as his threats to institute higher taxes on goods from countries that use shady tactics to depress the price of exports to America.

“I hope and pray that they do (change things for the better), and I think that they will,” Jones said of Trump's promises. “It's a passionate subject because it hurts manufacturing across this country.”

Jones said he sees manufacturing jobs as the key to reinvigorating the country's economy and infusing struggling communities with hope.

“It's larger than just manufacturing and larger than trade. I look at this as a community problem,” Jones said. “Without good- paying jobs and growing our economy, we will never be able to do the right things in our communities.”