Trump's Trade Rep Asked Point Blank: 'Do You Have Any Timeline' For Tariff Negotiations?

2 days ago

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) questioned US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you for the work that you're doing. You've got a lot on your plate and appreciate the focus

00:04right now on this. Let me come from a perspective of a lot of Oklahoma farmers and ranchers and

00:09manufacturing folks and retail folks and quite frankly folks that sell to retailers that are in

00:15Oklahoma. They've got several questions that they've actually sent to me pretty quickly. I

00:19still want to be able to bounce a few of those. The goal of this is to do more trade internationally

00:25that the United States would be able to manufacture here or produce here and sell

00:30more internationally and that we would have that opportunity to have increased market access. Is

00:34that correct? So Senator, I think that's accurate because when we're trying to get down a deficit

00:40and have more production here necessarily part of it is making sure we're not getting too many

00:44imports that are driven by unfair trade practices but also promoting our exports overseas. So then

00:49the right now there's a lot of negotiations going on. There was a lot of questions for several days

00:53whether we're negotiating or not negotiating. I'm hearing from you pretty clearly today. We are

00:57open to negotiate. We're trying to be able to establish better trade agreements to be able to

01:01move forward. Do you have any timeline on certain countries or places that you have set internally to

01:07say we hope to have negotiations complete by this point? Obviously negotiations can extend as long as

01:12they have to but is there a timeline you're dealing with? So the president has indicated that he's willing

01:18to negotiate with parties that want to pursue reciprocal trade with the United States. We don't

01:24have any particular timeline set on that because as you pointed out Senator, the outcome is more

01:29important than setting something artificially for us. What I can say is I'm moving as quickly as

01:34possible and a lot of these countries are moving very quickly and we're working on the weekends,

01:39we're working at night as folks want to engage on this. Now I will say, I know you want to ask something,

01:44the trade deficit has been decades in the making and it's not going to be solved overnight.

01:50Right, right. Yeah, everyone understands that well and everyone that I talked to

01:55is grateful that we're actually attacking the trade deficit issue and try to be able to bring down

01:58barriers to trade. They also want to get a timeline. Let me give you, for instance, I've got an Oklahoma

02:03company that several years ago spent millions of dollars to be able to move out of China. They moved

02:09into Vietnam for production because literally there was what they're producing, the parts were not

02:14created in America. So they were looking for other places to go. They spent all the money, spent all

02:19the time, shifted out of China, got to Vietnam and established there. Now they're saying we've got giant

02:25costs in Vietnam at this point. So they're going to have to renegotiate with every single retailer that

02:31they sell to, which is going to take a lot of time to be able to do it. What they're trying to be able to

02:35figure out is do we hold on those negotiations and try to renegotiate with Walmart and Target and

02:41Costco and everybody else they're going to have to renegotiate with? Or do they press on with those

02:45negotiations now? If things are going to get resolved soon, they can pause. If they're not going to get

02:50resolved, they're going to have to renegotiate every contract again to try to figure out which way to

02:54go. So the timepiece does matter to them. Senator, I understand completely. And Vietnam is one of those

03:01countries that understands that it is, frankly, one of the major targets of this action because

03:07their trade surplus with us is so lopsided. I think it's every $15 they export to us,

03:13we send them $1 and they remain closed to our exports where we can be in competitive agriculture,

03:18et cetera. But they've come to the table with an offer, right? We didn't go out and say,

03:22please come talk to us. They beat down our door and they want to talk about it.

03:25Good. I don't anticipate that we're ever going to have equal trade with Vietnam. We're a much larger

03:30economy than they are. But bringing down the trade barriers would be helpful so that they would

03:34accept American products to be sold there. I think that's beneficial. But most countries in the world

03:39are never going to buy as much as we're purchasing because we just purchase a lot more from there.

03:44Another issue has come up about garment manufacturing. Obviously, this is a challenge.

03:49We'll have different pieces that are bought from different countries. We don't have a lot of garment

03:53manufacturing here in the United States. For those garment manufacturers that are here and for others,

03:57some in Oklahoma, they're asking me about exclusions and exceptions and how this is going to be

04:03handled to say, we can't buy it in America. This is the only place that's actually manufacturing it.

04:09I know long-term, the hope is to be able to have a more diversified, but in the short term,

04:14they don't have another option. How do you plan to handle that?

04:16Senator, the president has been clear with me and with others that he does not intend to have exclusions

04:24and exemptions, especially given the nature of the action. If you have Swiss cheese in the action,

04:29it can undermine the overall point, which is to get rid of the deficit, achieve reciprocity.

04:36To my point earlier to Mr. Bennett, you know, the Western Hemisphere countries have a much lower

04:40tariff than many of the Asian countries. And I've heard from textile manufacturers for many years that

04:45they would love to have a situation where Western Hemisphere textile and garment manufacturing is more

04:50competitive and maybe we're setting up the conditions for that.

04:53So in the short term, there's no exemptions that are coming on it. So for companies that are

04:58currently buying from Asia at this point, whether it be for textiles, whatever it may be,

05:03the goal is to be able to push them out of Asia into the Western Hemisphere or where do they need to

05:06go at this point? Well, the president has been clear, again, that he's not doing exemptions or

05:13exceptions in the near term. My own sense is given the tariff differentials between Asia and Western

05:19Western Hemisphere. I think people can start making decisions based on that.

05:25Senator Whitehouse.

Trump's Trade Rep Asked Point Blank: 'Do You Have Any Timeline' For Tariff Negotiations?

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