During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) questioned Ambassador Jamieson Greer, a United States Trade Representative, about President Trump’s tariff policy.
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00:00Mr. Stubbe. Thank you Mr. Chairman and thank you Ambassador Greer for appearing
00:04today. Under President Trump's leadership we've seen a bold reassertion of
00:08American economic strength and leverage on the global stage. I'd like to walk
00:11through some of these wins and clarify the intent behind the administration's
00:15trade trade actions. Ambassador Greer can you start by reminding this
00:19committee why President Trump felt it necessary to take such divisive action
00:22with tariffs and what problems he inherited from decades of failed
00:26globalist trade policy? Yes certainly as I've mentioned before President Biden
00:32left us with the largest trade deficit for any country in human history 1.2
00:37trillion dollars it's extreme it's unsustainable especially when we have a
00:41thirty six thousand thirty six trillion dollar debt and a two to three
00:45trillion dollar budget deficit none of these numbers are sustainable and anyone
00:48who wants to pass this on to the next generation or to our kids or to the next
00:52session they're doing a disservice we have to deal with it now and we need to deal
00:56with the reshoring and remanufacturing now before we're in another crisis
01:00whether it's a conflict or a pandemic that is not the time to try to get back
01:04pharmaceuticals and semiconductors and autos and all these kinds of things we
01:07have to do it now. What distinguishes the Trump approach from the past 30 years of
01:12so-called free trade policies that gutted our manufacturing base? Well Wall Street
01:17we've heard a lot about Wall Street today and how important Wall Street is and
01:20all their analysts and and their entire goal has been just to make money for that top
01:25share of you know the elite right that's been their goal and so they've been
01:29focused on offshoring so they kept more efficiencies so they can have cheaper
01:34labor no environmental regulations they can go to these low-cost jurisdictions
01:39and what does that means it means that we have workers who train their
01:42replacements in foreign countries they lose their jobs and then then their
01:45hometown without a factory without a job and they live lives of despair in many
01:49cases and that's what's different with President Trump he wants to reverse
01:52that and he wants to change it. And isn't it true that over 60 countries have
01:56already come to the table to negotiate since the president announced the new
02:00reciprocal tariff structure? Well I'm starting to lose count but but yes that's
02:04and that's the that's the neighborhood of the folks who want to come in and work
02:08with us on reciprocal. And what does that say about the global leverage we've
02:11regained under this administration? Well that's exactly right we are the we are
02:15the market of destination for we are the market destination for both consumption
02:19investment etc and other countries want access to our market they understand now
02:24that we have to have it on fair terms and that's why they're here they'd be
02:28running the other way that's why almost all of them have said we're not going to
02:31retaliate we're going to work with the administration. And how important is it
02:34from a national security standpoint that we reduce our dependency on foreign
02:38steel aluminum and automotive components and how have the tariffs moved us in
02:43that direction? That's a great point with steel aluminum the president put steel
02:48aluminum put tariffs on steel aluminum in his first term the Biden
02:51administration kept those in place he's tightened up some of those tariffs now
02:55and so we are able to maintain a steel industry we're able to maintain an
03:00aluminum industry these are things you have to have as inputs for weapon systems
03:05for our infrastructure in a country that doesn't have that kind of hard
03:09manufacturing power behind it isn't going to have the soft diplomatic power you
03:13need to to navigate a challenging world. And do you believe that President Trump's
03:17tariff policy has re-established America economic sovereignty where we no longer
03:22have to beg foreign governments to treat us fairly? Yeah I think there's no
03:25question about that and we can see it from the first term when we impose tariffs
03:29on China in an effort to get them to change their unfair trading practices when
03:33that happened we saw our trade deficit with China decrease which is really
03:38important so it shows that we can become less dependent on foreign powers for
03:42the most critical goods and services. And how important is President Trump's
03:45leadership his willingness to stand up to global elites and foreign governments
03:49been in reasserting the United States as a trade power? Well it's been historic
03:53it's been historic because in the past we've had leaders and politicians who were
03:58either in the pocket of Wall Street or they had some other special interest and
04:01he's been willing to take a stand and do hard things and show others that he's
04:07not going to cave this is really important because if other countries other
04:11countries think about power in a different way some politicians want you know foreign
04:16countries to say nice things about them that's like their end purpose in
04:19foreign policy or trade policy President Trump wants the right thing for
04:22Americans and sometimes it means you have to stand up for yourself draw a line in
04:26the sand and say we're not going to do this anymore. What would you say that
04:30would you say for the first time in decades American workers have a
04:33president who fights for them not for multinational corporations or foreign
04:37bureaucrats? That's exactly right Congressman that's why workers voted for him
04:41that's why unions support the tariff actions that's why we see you know op-eds
04:45in the newspaper about union presidents wanting to work with President Trump on
04:49trade that's why we're seeing all of that that change that realignment. And I'll
04:52end I'll end with this what evidence have you seen that President Trump's
04:55tariffs are driving jobs back to the United States and helping to rebuild our
04:59manufacturing base? Well for example the auto tariffs that were imposed we've
05:02already seen that one company is increasing employment including temporary
05:05employment in Indiana we've seen a you know in Tennessee there was a shift that was
05:10going to go down to another country they kept that shift in America everyone
05:13knows if you want certainty if you want access you build in America and you use
05:17American labor. Thank you my time's expired.