Peter Welch Grills Trump's Trade Rep. After He Admits He Did Not 'Personally' Set Tariff Rates

2 days ago

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) questioned US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, on how the Trump Administration set tariff rates for other countries.

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Transcript

00:00On China, targeted tariffs make some sense. What is being rolled out and the

00:06way this is being done is so destructive and so reckless and so irresponsible that

00:12it's creating nothing but economic chaos, uncertainty, and suffering for a lot of

00:17people. These are really disastrous for Vermont. I just want to go through this

00:23question of how do these roll out? You did not set as our trade representative

00:29the tariff rates on all of these countries that were on display when the

00:33president announced them, right? Senator, the president made a decision on how he

00:39wanted to have the tariff set and the economic cabinet advised him on that.

00:43Right, but you did not set like the 50% rate on Lesotho. I personally didn't.

00:49Yeah, can you explain how that makes any sense? So the way that the

00:54methodology works is the emergency we're talking about is premised on the trade

00:59deficit, which we think is... Well, I'm trying to explain the method all to Senator, if you want to hear it.

01:03This has got to get concrete because this has real impacts on everyday people.

01:08So the rhetoric about what the goals are when the rollout is so in conflict with

01:15achieving anything other than economic downturn, how did the 50% rate on Lesotho

01:23be decided? So when you have White House economists who assess the the trade

01:29deficit... But you had no role in it? Well, I certainly had a role in it. Everyone was

01:34advising the president on how to do this. Right, but tell me why they came up with 50% for Lesotho. Well, I'd like to tell you, Senator.

01:39So, so when you look at a country's trade deficit, we believe that captures some of

01:43the unfairnesses and you have to have a uniform methodology. You can't be arbitrary or capricious.

01:47I'm gonna keep going because Lesotho does diamonds and you know... I'm happy to talk

01:51more to you about the methodology. There is, in my sense, is there is no methodology.

01:57I asked ChatGPT and basically they came up with some formula. Well, that's not true.

02:02Well, here's how it looks. Donald Trump just got fed up and said, what the heck,

02:08we'll just go with this formula that makes no sense. Number two, the issue of these

02:15tariffs. Now, the phone is ringing off the hook at the White House from countries wanting

02:19to get a break, right? They want to talk about how to have a reciprocal trade with

02:24us and how to get that deficit down. That's right. So, here's the structural issue that

02:27is really alarming to me and I hope to all of us. We are using these tariffs, or the president

02:34is using these tariffs from going from an economy that's based on competition to one

02:40that's based on access. You know, in a competitive economy, your product, your service, determines

02:47the outcome and how well you do. In an access economy, it's who's got Donald Trump's number,

02:52who's got your number, who's got Lutnik's number, and you call up and you get a break.

02:57That's an access economy. Is this gonna be the arbitrary authority of the president to decide,

03:04yes, we'll cut the Vietnam tariff and no, we'll sustain the tariff on Lesotho?

03:11The way this works, Senator, is we have long-standing relationships with trade officials in these

03:15foreign countries and they work with our staff, our career staff, and they develop, you know,

03:20if someone comes to us with an offer, we review it, we analyze it, and we present it to the president.

03:24They're calling the president. I mean, you've got Donald Trump as president basically picking

03:29in choosing winners and losers and who knows on what basis. That's not a trade regime that anybody

03:35can count on. That's something they can game if they know you, they know Lutnik, they know Donald

03:42Trump. You know, that's in that I think was what Senator Warnock was asking about. We've got farmers on

03:48the border with Canada. They get their grain. It's going to be 25 percent hit. We've got consumers whose

03:57electricity bills are going up because of retaliation from Canada. Can they make a call to you, to Howard

04:04Lutnik, to the president, and ask for relief? Well, we certainly talk to all kinds of constituents. We

04:09talk to labor unions. We talk to civil society. We talk to business. I would say with Canada and Mexico,

04:14they receive duty-free treatment for things that follow the rules of USMCA. If they if they bring in

04:18Chinese content and send it down, they won't get a break. Let me tell you the frustration I have.

04:23There is a place for targeted tariffs to help us and also to push back on unfair trade practices.

04:33I support that. That's not what this is. This is utter chaos, arbitrary, and willful on the part of the

04:41president that is setting up a dynamic where he picks winners and losers rather than companies compete

04:48to do the best they can and have the benefit of good work and a good product.

04:54Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Thank you. Senator Barrasso. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Peter Welch Grills Trump's Trade Rep. After He Admits He Did Not 'Personally' Set Tariff Rates

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