April 8 (UPI) — Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday defended global tariffs before the Senate Finance Committee amid a bipartisan push by U.S. senators to end the tariffs.
Greer had been expected to declare the tariffs announced Wednesday by President Donald Trump as “bearing fruit” already, Politico reported after obtaining a copy of his prepared testimony.
“Nearly 50 countries have approached me to discuss the president’s new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity,” Greer’s prepared testimony said. “Several of these countries, such as Argentina, Vietnam and Israel, have suggested they will reduce their tariffs and non-tariff barriers.”
The statement said the nation’s “large and persistent trade deficit has been over 30 years in the making, and it will not be resolved overnight.”
The tariffs Trump announced on Wednesday are “in the right direction,” Greer’s statement contends.
In addition to testifying before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, Greer also is scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday during the annual congressional overview of the president’s trade policies.
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Tuesday announced a bipartisan resolution to repeal the global tariffs and “restore congressional authority over trade.”
“Trump is driving our economy into a recession, killing jobs and wiping out seniors’ retirement funds as we speak,” Wyden said.
“No president should have the power to tax everything Americans buy without being accountable to Congress,” Wyden said. “Unless Republicans join with Democrats and take back Congress’s power over trade policy, the damage could take years to reverse.”
Paul said “tariffs are taxes” and only Congress has the power to tax.
“Our founders were clear: Tax policy should never rest in the hands of one person,” Paul said.
“Abusing emergency powers to impose blanket tariffs not only drives up costs for American families but also tramples on the Constitution,” he added. “It’s time Congress re-asserts its authority and restores the balance of power.”
Paul is the only Senate Republican to co-sponsor the resolution. Its other sponsors are Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va.; Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; Peter Welch, D-Vt.; and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
The senators said they will introduce the resolution this week and treat it as a privileged resolution requiring a vote on the Senate floor.
If approved, the measure would end the tariffs announced by Trump, which the senators say adds up to 49% tariffs on imported goods sold in the United States.
“In the wake of Trump’s tariff declaration, markets have cratered, manufacturers have laid off thousands of workers and foreign countries have retaliated by slapping their own tariffs on U.S. agricultural and manufactured goods,” the resolution announcement by Wyden and Paul says.
