(CNN) –– President Donald Trump’s US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday defended the administration’s expansive tariffs during a routine hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
“Last Wednesday, President Trump declared a national emergency in response to the large and persistent trade deficit that has built up in recent years,” Greer said in his prepared remarks. “This deficit is driven in part by non- reciprocal tariffs, trading barriers, and other economic policies pursued by our foreign trading partners. President Trump imposed tariffs to address this emergency.”
Greer then said the president’s “strategy is already bearing fruit” and that nearly “50 countries have approached me to discuss the President’s new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity.”
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Democratic ranking member of the committee, decried Trump’s sweeping tariffs and said he is introducing a new privileged resolution “to end the latest crop of global tariffs that are clobbering American families and small businesses.”
“The Trump aimless, chaotic tariff spree has proven beyond a doubt that Congress has given far too much of our constitutional power on international trade over to the executive branch,” he said. “It is time to take that power back.”
Greer said the administration is in talks with about 50 countries and that “many” of them have signaled that they don’t plan to retaliate against the United States. He also pointed to the prominent role that so-called non-trade barriers are playing in Trump’s trade policy, one of them being foreign countries’ regulations rooted in “fake science.”
But Greer said that the Trump administration’s trade concerns will likely not be fixed anytime soon.
“Our large and persistent trade deficit has been over 30 years in the making, and it will not be resolved overnight,” Greer told the Senate Finance Committee during a routine hearing. “But all of this is in the right direction, particularly as we start to negotiate with these countries.”
Greer said the administration is in talks with about 50 countries and that they’re trying to address some non-tariff related measures, such as foreign countries’ regulations that impede US exports. Greer told the committee that India has “licensing regimes or fake science that they use to block our imports.” He also pointed to Australia having “barriers to the export of beef from the United States.”
“And it’s not just beef,” Greer said. “Australia also blocks on… fake science grounds the export of fresh and frozen US pork, so it’s incredible that they do this. We have zero exports of the fresh and frozen us pork to Australia.”
Greer reaffirmed that Trump’s massive reciprocal tariffs will go into effect on April 9.
“We will have the president’s plan go into effect, and we’re coupling that with immediate negotiations with our partners,” he said.
This story is developing and will be updated.
