Bill Cassidy Asks Trump Commerce Nominee: Do You Support Using The Foreign Pollution Fee?

3 days ago

During Thursday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) questioned Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Nominee William Kimmit and Assistant Secretary of Treasury Nominee Kenneth Kies about the foreign trade compliance enforcement measurements.

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00:00Please, knowing that you're going to carry out, but also you'll have some influence on the

00:06practicality of carrying out, Senator Hassan and I have just introduced the Red Tape Reduction Act.

00:13And what this addresses is that in 2021, with the passage of the American Rescue Plan,

00:18the threshold to receive information regarding on the 1099k was reduced from 20k to $600 on a

00:28single transaction. Now, practically, that seems difficult to, and it's affecting my constituents.

00:33It affects everybody's constituents. So can you get, if, when you're giving best advice on the

00:39practicality of executing the law, would you agree, and I'm begging the answer, as you speak to

00:44whomever you're speaking to, that this one's not very practical and perhaps we should increase that

00:48threshold? Clearly, events have demonstrated that that particular change has been very

00:57difficult for people to handle and is a questionable judgment. So it's definitely something that needs

01:04to be rethought. So I would commend both you and your colleague for raising the issue and saying

01:11that's something we need to turn our attention to. Yeah. Knowing, again, that you will have some

01:17input on policy, even though ultimately you are the executioner, so to speak. The U.S. fiscal policy,

01:26right now, it is estimated that we'll get to 106% of debt-to-GDP ratio, which is our historic high.

01:32We'll get to that point in 2027. And if you just look at, we've got $36 trillion in debt now,

01:40we're going to add another $21 trillion just on autopilot. And if we're not careful, we'll add

01:46another $10 trillion on top of that. You've thought a lot about this. Others say that's not

01:51sustainable. What are your thoughts about that? Clearly, the level of debt we have is extremely

01:59troubling. And it raises significant questions about sustainability on a long-term basis, particularly

02:06when you look at the entitlement programs, which are facing significant challenges in the near

02:12future, both Medicare and Social Security. By challenges, you mean the trust funds, just to

02:18elucidate. The challenges are that the trust funds are going insolvent, at which point, by law, those

02:23benefits will be cut by roughly 20-25%. In the case of the Social Security trust fund, I think the current

02:28projection is the trust fund goes insolvent in 2033, at which point incoming taxes will be the only

02:35resources available to pay benefits, which would be roughly in the 70-75% range. Yes, that is a

02:42significant concern, and not just for me, but for her, my granddaughter. No, your granddaughter is going

02:50to pay the bill, you know what I'm saying? She should be complaining right now, so I'm glad that she's

02:54talking up, so that's perfect. She seems to be okay with it right now, but I don't think she will be later.

02:59Mr. Kimmett, I'll accept that you accept that this is unsustainable, and that we need to do

03:07something about it. We should do something about it sooner, not later. Again, in your advisory

03:11position on policy. Is that a fair summary of what you would say? I think he was referring to me.

03:19I'm sorry, Mr. Keyes. It's perfectly okay. Yeah, I think I am an advisor. I'm not a policymaker,

03:27but clearly, I will be part of the process of advising on issues like this, and I don't think

03:35any person can look at the picture ahead and not see that there are some significant challenges

03:42that need to be addressed sooner rather than later. Mr. Kimmett, it turns out we have some

03:46mutual friends, and so anyway, I pass on their hellos. Won't influence my vote. It was already a yes,

03:51because in an interview, you came across extremely well. But let me speak. When the President

03:55announced his tariffs, he spoke about other countries producing in a dirty fashion, if you

03:59will, offshoring their pollution, but onshoring the decreased manufacturing costs to our

04:05disadvantage, if you follow what I just said. Now, we have something we call the foreign pollution

04:10fee, which I'll also point out that the American First Policy Institute now supports, in which we would

04:20put a fee on goods coming from other countries roughly equal to what they're not paying to control

04:26their air pollution, but that which we do pay. And this is a pro-manufacturing. We just updated the

04:33foreign pollution fee legislation, assigning key roles to the departments under your jurisdiction,

04:39specifically enforcement compliance. So let me just ask, again begging an answer, do you support

04:45incorporating pollution intensity or carbon benchmarking into a trade enforcement as a tool

04:51to counter unfair trade practices by non-market economies, particularly in high emission sectors

04:58like steel, cement, and aluminum, where these foreign polluters are using the lack of compliance with

05:04with environmental laws to undercut cleaner U.S. producers?

05:08Thank you for the question, Senator. And I enjoyed our meeting as well, and enjoyed discussing this with you.

05:14And I believe certainly that the President has mentioned that low environmental regulations in other markets

05:23are a non-tariff barrier, and certainly I see it as a trade issue in the role for which I've been nominated,

05:29and certainly leveling the playing field so that other countries that don't meet the high standards of the United States

05:35don't gain an unfair advantage, and then the, of course, related environmental benefits.

Bill Cassidy Asks Trump Commerce Nominee: Do You Support Using The Foreign Pollution Fee?

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