Greg Steube Asks US Trade Rep To Explain Rationale Behind Trump’s ‘Divisive’ Tariff Policy

Forbes Breaking News

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.

Transcript

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.

Category

Transcript

Recommended