U.S. trade representative on SCOTUS decision

(CBS, KYMA) - U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the Supreme Court striking down President Donald Trump's sweeping use of tariffs.

In a 6 to 3 ruling Friday, the Supreme Court struck down President Trump's sweeping tariff agenda, writing that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to impose tariffs.

However, the president said Saturday he's going to issue "legally permissible tariffs," and said he doesn't need to go to Congress.

This prompted Brennan to ask Greer if he can clarify Trump's comments, as well ask him if he will go to Congress to legislate the tariffs, and if so, which ones, to which Greer said:

"Right now, it's important to understand that over the years, Congress has delegated enormous tariff-setting authority to the president, depending on the situation. So even though the Supreme Court struck down tariffs under one authority, tariffs under other national security elements remain in place. Tariffs under what we call Section 301 related to unfair trading practices, remain in place. And so, we, of course, can conduct additional investigations under these tools to impose tariffs, to have continuity in the president's trade policy."

According to Brennan, six House Republicans voted to roll back tariffs the U.S. put on goods from Canada, which she said is a signal that there's apprehension among members of the president's own party.

This led her to ask Greer if he can go ask Republican lawmakers to take a vote to legislate the tariffs, and he said:

"This is interesting because one, I've heard from a lot of Republicans over the past year, ones who traditionally, you know, weren't always in favor of tariffs, they've now come around. And they said, one, we've seen this as effective to negotiate deals. Two, we've seen it's effective to re-shore. And three, it's real money coming in. And so I've heard from folks all over the spectrum, and I have to point out too, we did get one Democrat voting in favor of the tariffs as well. And the Republicans who voted against the president, they vote against him on everything, these are people who are either in the doghouse or on the way out. So it's not, it's not really representative of where the party is."

During the interview, Brennan and Greer talked about trade deals around the world, with Brennan saying India called off a visit to their trade delegation in Washington "because they're trying to figure out what just happened."

Brennan also said South Korea and the EU are also holding emergency meetings to figure out what's going on, as they have trade deals with the U.S., leading her to ask Greer if the trade deals are in jeopardy, and he said:

"I spoke with my counterpart from the EU this weekend. I have a call that I'm going to have with others. I spoke to my counterparts in other countries. And so the deals, the deals, were not premised on whether or not the emergency tariff litigation would rise or fall. They weren't premised on that. So it's totally normal for these countries to talk to each other, have meetings internally to determine this. But rest assured, I've been speaking to these folks as well, and I've been telling them for a year whether this case, whether we won or lost, we were going to have tariffs. The president's policy was going to continue. That's why they signed these deals, even while the litigation was pending. So we're having active conversations with them. We want them to understand that these deals are going to be good deals. We, we expect to stand by them. We expect our partners to stand by them. And I haven't heard anyone yet come to me and say, the deal's off. They want to see how this plays out. I'm in active conversation with them on it."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Greer, click here.