Terri Sewell Asks US Trade Rep If Trump Has 'Unlimited Power' To Impose Tariffs 'For Any Reason'

5 days ago

During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) spoke about President Trump's use of emergency powers to impose his blanket tariffs.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Welcome ambassador. It was a pleasure working with you on USMCA and for what

00:06it's worth I still believe that USMCA is gold standard for our trade agreements

00:12that we make. It was done so with with Congress and and the executive and that

00:19should be the standard. Unfortunately for both of us President Trump has decided

00:24that he doesn't want to work with Congress and that he is not bound by our

00:28Constitution or trade laws. President Trump has unilaterally imposed the largest

00:35tax increase on working families in decades by implementing broad tariffs

00:40that are crashing the economy and threatening the livelihoods of so many

00:44working families in Alabama and all across America. Moreover he is doing so

00:50by abusing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act or IEMPA clearly

00:57states that the president can only use this authority in response to quote

01:01unusual and extraordinary in quote threats. However both you and the

01:08president have described the trade deficit as persistent. I don't know how you can

01:14claim that our trade deficit is persistent and at the same time use an emergency

01:20authority which requires it to be quote unquote unusual. My question to you I have a

01:27series of questions and really I just want a yes or no answer. As our trade

01:31representative do you believe there are any restriction on President Trump's

01:35emergency authority or do you believe that President Trump has unlimited power to

01:41tariff any country for any reason? Yes or no? Congress has put a number of

01:45limitations on that authority. So is that a no? It is not unlimited. Not unlimited. Does

01:52President Trump did President Trump ask you or or do you believe that using

01:58emergency authority for this purpose of trade deficit is legal? Of course it's

02:03legal yes. Do you believe Congress has any role in providing oversight of this

02:09administration's implementation of tariffs? Certainly that's why I'm here today. Many of us on this

02:17committee have serious concerns that foreign nations will be pressured into negotiating as a result of

02:24this and those negotiations could also extend to them purchasing the bitcoin with the president's

02:31name and face on it. That would be illegal right? I have never looked into bitcoin purchases by foreign

02:38countries. Reclaiming my time. With this uh are tariffs regressive or are they

02:45progressive tax? Well tariffs can protect and that's why the United Auto

02:50Workers want them in place and have cheered the territory claiming my time. Um who

02:54spends a large a higher portion of their income on goods the wealthy or

02:59working class? I think the more wealthy have a higher percentage of

03:04consumption overall in the United States. Well according to the tax

03:07foundation a conservative entity they just the dis this the dis I'm

03:16how things are distributed are more regressive and put a higher burden on lower income households

03:26more than higher income households. The top 10 percent of income of incomes account for about 50 percent of

03:32consumption. They do and so I think for what I'm getting at Mr. Ambassador is that my Alabama

03:39constituents are very very worried. I was home this weekend and Miss Jackie who owns uh Reflections a

03:46coffee shop in Selma Alabama right um near the Edmund Pettus Bridge uh a place that she couldn't have when

03:53she was growing up in Selma go into she now owns it's a coffee shop and she's really really worried that the

03:59price of coffee will go up so high that she will not be able to keep her store and she just you know

04:06this is year number three it's a very popular store but in Little Selma Alabama where uh the price of coffee

04:13is already five dollars 4.99 um increasing it even more would shut her down and so my constituents have

04:23lots of questions uh to me and to um you know and to this president with respect to why we are um choosing

04:32to go down this path his uh tariffs amount to the largest tax increase on those families um it's bad for

04:40Alabama farmers who are facing retaliatory tariffs it's bad for consumers who will see prices skyrocket it is

04:48horrible for those who are retired and depend upon their retirement to live and seeing the stock

04:54market go out of control so sir this is really dire for a lot of folks that I represent dire for a lot

05:02of folks that I represent and we can't wait for things to get better and so I really urge you and the

05:08president to think about the least of these the most vulnerable in our society and how they're going to

05:14weather the storm and to my republican colleagues here on this committee I hope that you will push

05:19back on these escalating sweeping tariffs that have done so much damage to our economy thank you and go back

Terri Sewell Asks US Trade Rep If Trump Has 'Unlimited Power' To Impose Tariffs 'For Any Reason'

Category

Transcript

Recommended