'Would Be A Very Bad Path': Ted Cruz Raises Alarm About Maintaining 'High Tariffs In Perpetuity'

Forbes Breaking News

At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke about tariffs.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. DeBar. And just to clarify for the record, members of this

00:03committee will not be required to run an Ironman. You are encouraged to run an

00:13Ironman if you feel so inspired, but you will be enabled. I climbed Mount Fuji,

00:20but I was 19. I have my past staff behind me. I tried to encourage them to do a

00:27half Ironman when I was a DOE, and I got some significant HR pushback on pressuring

00:34them. Understandably. And I will say on the Republican side of the aisle, two of

00:42our members, Mark Wayne Mullen and Dave McCormick, are both former very

00:48accomplished wrestlers, and more than a few of us have been trying to arrange a cage

00:52match which we think would sell a lot of tickets. We have been unsuccessful in

00:56scheduling that, but hope springs eternal. Senator Sheehy just would shoot them both,

01:01so it's all a difference in perspective. All right, to the work at hand. Mr. DeBar,

01:08your experience at the Department of Energy, your two-decade career in

01:11financial management, your success as the founder of a quantum technology company,

01:16all of that makes you very well qualified for this position. Tell us, why do you

01:20want to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce? As I mentioned, Senator, this is an

01:26exciting time for the scope. Obviously trade, as was mentioned by both you and the

01:31ranking members, obviously front and center. I have a significant amount of

01:34background of that in the private sector. And the bureaus that are primarily

01:39science and technology, NOAA, BIS, the Patent Office, the CHIPS Act, those and

01:47others, NTIA, are primarily science and technology efforts. And obviously I have a

01:53great background in it, but I'm also very passionate about each and every one of

01:57those areas. So as you and I discussed in my office yesterday, the president and

02:03this administration has two paths before it. One path that I think is very, very

02:07positive, one path that I think is very, very negative. The positive path, I think

02:11President Trump right now has extraordinary leverage, unprecedented

02:15leverage to negotiate lower tariffs from our trading partners in exchange for

02:20lowering the tariffs that he has threatened to impose on them. I think if

02:24we end up 30, 60, 90 days from now in a world where we've got markedly lower

02:29tariffs across the globe, that would be an historic victory for Americans, for

02:35American jobs, for American workers. On the other hand, the second path we could go

02:41down is a path that maintains very high tariffs in perpetuity, American tariffs on

02:50all of our trading partners, and we can expect retaliatory tariffs from our trading

02:54partners. I believe that would be a very bad path. I believe that would be a path

02:59that would hurt Texas and would hurt America. What is your view? Which path is

03:04is preferable for the administration to take?

03:08So the president has been very clear on support of the president's positions on

03:13the different drivers of trade and the different potential accomplishments of

03:18trade. One of them may be to drive down barriers and tariffs, non-tariffs and

03:22non-tariff barriers in our trading counterparties. Another one is to

03:28re-industrialize the U.S. as we lost significant amount of jobs, especially since the

03:32WTO acquisition of the PRC drove down industrial jobs. The third one is

03:40national security. I think yourself and many others here talk about the national

03:44security impact of the trade deficits. And the last one is potentially revenues. I am

03:50not certain of the exact negotiations between various parties, but I could

03:56certainly see that some negotiations may be more focused on accomplishment of one or

04:02two of those, and some might be others. For example, I've testified many times

04:08before the Senate about China and national security issues, and I certainly think that

04:12when we talk about the PRC, national security and re-industrialization is going to be much

04:19more focused as a likely outcome of negotiations.

04:23I recognize you will not be the ultimate decision-maker when it comes to the

04:29president's trade policy, but you will be one of the voices in the room, and it is my

04:32hope that you will be a voice in the room advocating for using these tariffs as

04:37leverage to secure freer and fairer trade, because I think that's the right

04:42direction for the administration to go. Let me shift to a different topic. One of

04:47the Department of Commerce's most consequential responsibilities is the

04:50allocation and management of spectrum through the NTIA. Last year, Leader Thune,

04:56Senator Blackburn and I introduced a bill to restore the FCC's authority and establish

05:01a clear actionable spectrum pipeline, one that empowers commercial businesses to

05:06invest, innovate, and create jobs. We now have the opportunity to advance a

05:11pipeline through reconciliation, which will not only bring in significant funding

05:16to the Treasury, but will also help unleash American prosperity through market

05:21innovation and investment. Notably, the bill does not constrain the various parties in determining

05:30how to meet the goals of the pipeline. It provides instead a framework for success.

05:36It also enhances our national security, as any agency that becomes more efficient in

05:41its use of Spectrum will receive significant funding. The NTIA will play a lead role as the

05:47federal government's Spectrum Management Agency. Do you agree that it is important

05:52for the federal government to make additional spectrum available for commercial use, and that

05:57this can be done without compromising national security?

06:00Yes, Senator.

06:02Tell this committee what the benefits are of making additional spectrum available for private

06:08development.

06:09So there's two in particular, Mr. Chairman, that I would highlight. One is satellite 5G,

06:17which is still very early stage. And then one that I'm particularly interested in focusing

06:22on, if I'm so lucky to be confirmed, is on satellite 6G, where the U.S. needs to jump forward as

06:30a next competitive battlefield with a PRC. So the utilization of Spectrum to not only get

06:35to 5G satellite, but also get to 6G satellite, which hopefully by the end of my term, if I'm

06:42so lucky to be confirmed, that we will be moving forward on that and showing leadership on that

06:47over the PRC.

06:48I very much agree that it is critical that America win the race for 5G and for 6G and

06:54that we not fall behind China. And if we find ourselves in a world where China and Huawei

07:00Huawei in particular has provided the global architecture for telecommunications worldwide,

07:07that would do enormous damage both to our economic security and our national security. And I trust

07:12you we'll work hard in this new role to prevent that from happening.

07:16Ranking Member K.

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