During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) criticized the Trump Administration's tariff policy after President Trump backed down on his blanket tariffs.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. Swazi.
00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ambassador.
00:06Thanks for being here today.
00:07Thanks for your service.
00:08I saw that you were a missionary and you were a veteran
00:10and you had a big job at a law firm
00:13and now you're here serving the government.
00:14You helped negotiate the USMCA.
00:16Did you think the USMCA was a good deal for America?
00:19I think it was.
00:20There was a lot more we could have done and should have done.
00:22So why did the president come out after this year
00:25and say it was one of the worst deals we ever negotiated
00:27in the history of the country?
00:28I think it's frustrating that here we are five years later
00:31and steel imports from Mexico shot up,
00:33car imports from Mexico shot up.
00:35You think it was a good deal,
00:36but he thinks it was a terrible deal.
00:37I mean, I feel like you're in a very bad position here.
00:40This whole idea that this president made this switcheroo on you
00:43while you were in the middle of testifying here today,
00:45I actually feel bad for you.
00:47But I really feel bad for the American people
00:49that are seeing these things happen.
00:51There's no plan.
00:52I mean, that's my big concern.
00:54I know there's goals.
00:55I want to see manufacturing brought back to America,
00:58or at least I want to see jobs that pay more money
01:01so we can rebuild our middle class in America.
01:03I'm for that.
01:05I'm for holding China accountable
01:06and holding our adversaries accountable.
01:08I'm for tariffs in select specific places.
01:12But right now, all we know is prices are going up,
01:17we're pissing off our allies,
01:19and the stock market went down dramatically.
01:22It's gone up dramatically today.
01:23The market manipulation question by Mr. Horsford
01:26is a very real concern that we're going to have to dig into a little bit.
01:29Who's benefiting from these wild fluctuations down,
01:32wild fluctuation up?
01:33We're still way down.
01:34We need a plan to accomplish the objectives
01:38that I know that you genuinely believe in,
01:40which is to try and recreate the middle class here
01:43in the United States of America,
01:44that on my side of the aisle, we all believe in that.
01:47We have to recreate the middle class in America.
01:49Do you think we should increase the minimum wage in America?
01:52I think we need to create jobs that naturally have high wages.
01:55The minimum wage in 20 states is $7.25 an hour.
01:58Do you think we should increase the minimum wage?
01:59I mean, I think the states should be managing that kind of thing.
02:02I think we need better manufacturing jobs.
02:03They're $30, $40, $50 an hour.
02:0520 states rely on federal minimum wage.
02:07It's still $7.25 an hour.
02:08So you don't think we should increase it at the federal level?
02:10Well, you'll have to talk to the Secretary of Labor on that.
02:12Do you think we should have the PRO Act to promote unions in America?
02:16Because that will help to recreate the middle class.
02:18And I'd refer you to Secretary Chavez de Riemer.
02:20She's a much better place.
02:22Do you like the CHIPS Act to reassure the manufacturing of semiconductors
02:26here in the United States of America,
02:27a national industrial policy where we invest in creating factories
02:32with high-skilled, high-wage jobs in America?
02:35Do you support the CHIPS Act?
02:37So notionally, I agree that we should have industrial policy
02:39to help with CHIPS and other things, right?
02:41You know, whether the CHIPS Act was the perfect way to do it,
02:43I don't know.
02:44So my big concern is that, you know,
02:47we want to do these things.
02:49You and I share the same goals,
02:50but there's no plan right now.
02:53As we saw, there's been devastation from this unilateral action by the President
02:58where he treats our allies and our strategic adversaries the same,
03:04with the exception of China.
03:05We know that China's – and I'm all for that.
03:07I actually have a bill that I sponsored to get rid of the most favored trade nation for China.
03:11So – but why are we treating our allies?
03:14Why are we treating Japan and Korea and Australia,
03:19who have been our bulwarks against China in the Indo-Pacific?
03:23And Vietnam, even though they don't share our philosophy,
03:27they're sick of China as well,
03:28and we were building a relationship with them to help us be a bulwark against China.
03:34Why are we treating our allies in the Indo-Pacific,
03:37who are our main allies against China the same as we're treating our adversaries?
03:43We aren't treating them the same.
03:44They have substantially lower tariffs than China.
03:46I know, but we just kind of –
03:47Substantially, they're completely different.
03:47We really kind of bombarded them.
03:49I mean, it's the same as USMCA.
03:51We negotiated a bipartisan trade agreement that everybody agreed upon,
03:57that the President praised as being the best deal ever,
04:00and now he pulls the rug – like he pulled the rug out from under you today.
04:03He pulled the rug out from under Canada and Mexico.
04:08I mean, it doesn't seem like there's any – there's no plan.
04:12Do you think that there's a plan, and can you share the plan with us?
04:15Certainly.
04:16Listen, I'm very confident in the President's policy.
04:18Goods that meet USMCA rules come in duty-free.
04:22So when the President comes out and he says,
04:24we're going to have a tariff to make sure we're treated the same,
04:27that we can get rid of these deficits,
04:29we have a baseline 10% to make sure that we don't have Swiss cheese in this program,
04:34and then we have higher tariffs on those who are the worst offenders.
04:37That's why you end up in a –
04:38So the President put in place –
04:39Can I finish?
04:40Yeah, the President put in place these high tariffs,
04:43but today he just yanked them out.
04:45Is that part of the plan?
04:47Was that always part of the plan?
04:48Well, they're paused.
04:50The reality is a lot of these countries have come to us,
04:53and they said, we understand American leadership.
04:56We understand what you're trying to do.
04:57We want to have reciprocal trade with you.
04:59China has taken a different choice, and so they're on a different path.
05:03Our Western Hemisphere countries, they all have the lowest rate.
05:05They have a 10% rate, right?
05:06The UK, Australia, they have a 10% rate.
05:08These are all the lowest.
05:09The big issues are in Asia, where we saw the offshoring,
05:12and China is in a category all by itself.
05:14Okay. Thank you, Ambassador.
05:16Appreciate your time today.
05:17I'm very concerned there's no plan,
05:19and this is being done kind of willy-nilly at the last minute by the President,
05:22out of his head.
05:24It doesn't really make sense to us.
05:26It would be great if we knew what the plan was
05:28and it was shared to us by the administration,
05:30and even if it was done in a way for our committee,
05:33that we could at least know what's happening.
05:35We have a lot of the same goals,
05:37but right now, prices are going up,
05:40our allies are very upset,
05:41and the stock market is on fire.
05:45Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:46Mr. Gomez is recognized.