WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s top trade negotiator came under fire Tuesday from senators unnerved by the president’s sweeping global tariffs, a market meltdown and the heightened risk of recession from an upended global trading order.
“It seems like we’ve decided to begin a trade war on all fronts,″ said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. He said he wanted to know who in the Trump administration he should hold responsible — and “choke″ — if the tariffs fail and Americans suffer from higher prices and slower economic growth. “I wish you well,″ he told U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. ”But I am skeptical.’’
Greer addressed the Senate Finance Committee a day after global markets swung wildly and some business leaders lambasted the president’s aggressive bid to raise tariffs on almost every nation on earth.
Greer testified that Trump’s tariffs are already getting results, convincing “about 50” countries to come to the negotiating table to reduce their own trade barriers. He said, for example, that Vietnam is cutting its own tariffs on apples, almonds and cherries. The import taxes are designed to reduce America’s massive trade deficits, but Greer conceded that it will take time and that the adjustment might ”be challenging at times.”
Lawmakers, including Republicans, are getting jittery about Trump’s trade wars, especially since stocks collapsed after he announced broad tariffs last Wednesday. The market rebounded Tuesday on hopes that negotiations will convince the president to lower or suspend the tariffs, the biggest of which are set to take effect at midnight Wednesday.
Several senators demanded that Greer explain what the administration was seeking to accomplish. At various times, Trump has said the tariffs were meant to raise money for the Treasury, bring manufacturing back to the United States, protect domestic industries and get other countries to make concessions.
“What is the plan?’’ said Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, top Democrat on the finance committee. “In the last week, the White House has been all over the map when it comes to these tariffs. There is no clear message about how they were determined, what they’re supposed to accomplish, how long they will be in place, whether they’re a negotiating tool or a move to try and cut the United States off from global trade and usher in a new era of 1870s-style protectionism.’’
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he would oppose the tariffs if they are intended only to raise revenue for the federal government, and not to open foreign markets to American exports.
