Chuck Grassley Advocates For Trade Expansion With Lesser-Known Countries, Cites Past Successes

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At a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) spoke about the expansion of U.S. trade negotiations.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, I'm going to submit to each of you questions for answering writing.

00:05I want to spend my time talking to Mr. Barlone, not in questions,

00:11but just some frustration I have about the process of negotiations that are going on now with trade.

00:20I have no problems with the president's goal at this point.

00:24I have no problems with maybe what's going on, but I don't know what's going on,

00:30and I don't think most of the people know what's going on.

00:33It would be nice if we had some positive signals coming.

00:37But because you work for Lighthizer, and at the end of his first term,

00:47there is a special trade representative.

00:49He was starting to negotiate with countries in Africa.

00:52Remember, Kenya started out and was going to lead to other countries

00:57that maybe we don't even know from the name that they're in Africa.

01:01But they were seen as a wonderful opportunity for the United States.

01:07And we have 110 countries that have come to the United States after Liberation Day

01:15that they said that they want to negotiate with us.

01:18And I know we have real serious negotiations going on with maybe 15 to 20 countries right now,

01:25and I would like those to be successful.

01:28But I think we're missing a wonderful opportunity for all those countries

01:34that we don't even think about doing trade with.

01:38And this goes from experiences we've had negotiating with the lesser countries

01:44and very successful negotiations.

01:46And I'm talking about, in the past, the negotiations we've had with Australia, Bahrain,

01:54CAFTA, Dominican Republic, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Peru, Morocco, Obama,

02:03Oman, I mean, and Singapore.

02:06And since these agreements with these countries were implemented,

02:14the data is pretty clear.

02:16The combined trade in goods surplus with these 15 countries

02:20has grown from about $7 billion to almost $56 billion,

02:26a 689 percent increase.

02:29If these were a country, it would be by far the largest trade in goods surplus

02:37the United States has with any country in the world.

02:41So while we're spending our time negotiating very difficult negotiations

02:48with these big trading partners that we consider,

02:51I'm talking about Europe, United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, India, Indonesia, China,

03:03hopefully those mature.

03:06And if these are successful, it's a big deal.

03:11But we're forgetting about all these smaller countries that it seems to me

03:16we have absolute proof that it delivers the goods positive for our trade balance.

03:25And it seems to me we ought to be spending some time almost parallel

03:30with these 18 countries we're negotiating

03:33and spend some time with negotiating with far easier countries

03:41that are probably very anxious to make deals with the United States.

03:46Now I would ask you for action to it.

03:48If you don't have any, it's okay with me,

03:52but I've got a minute and eight seconds you can use if you want to use it.

03:57Thank you for that question, Senator Grassley, and for your comments.

04:01Let me just say first that I very much enjoyed meeting with you in your office.

04:05As we discussed, my parents are both born and raised in Iowa,

04:09and the state has a dear spot in my heart.

04:12I agree that I think that we have achieved tremendous success

04:18by having arrangements and agreements with a number of different countries

04:25and some that you wouldn't necessarily think of,

04:28particularly for opening agricultural access.

04:31Certainly if I'm confirmed,

04:32I will do what I can at the World Trade Organization

04:36to meet with representatives of all countries

04:40and to try to further that agenda

04:42and do what I can to try to get agreements

04:45so that we can get better trade relations with all of these countries.

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