U.S. trade representative on China tariffs, tariff exceptions and negotiating trade deals
(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Jamieson Greer, U.S. Trade Representative, spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday to discuss the Trump administration's economic proposals, from tariffs to taxes and more.
China and the United States have traded tariff increases over several days. China said on Friday it would raise tariffs on U.S. goods from 84% to 125%. The higher tariffs were scheduled to go into effect on Saturday, and China said it would not respond to future U.S. tariff hikes.
President Donald Trump's universal tariffs on China now total 145%, after pausing tariffs on most other countries for 90 days after global stock markets plunged, and the bond market had a hostile reaction to the tariffs.
Experts had said tariffs raised the risks of a recession and would likely reignite inflation.
When asked if there are plans for Presidents Trump and Xi to speak, Ambassador Greer said, "Right now, we don't have any plans on that. This issue is truly at the leaders level. Before April 2, I had a conversation with my counterpart, and others did since April 2. We have this at the leaders' level, and at some point, as President Trump has pointed out, we expect that we'll be able to have a conversation with them."
Brennan followed up by asking Greer if the Trump administration is trying to get China to sell some of their $1.5 trillion in assets, and if it is part of his goal, to which Greer responded saying:
"That's not part of this plan. President Trump has a global program to try to reshore American manufacturing and address the trade deficit. It's a global issue. The only reason we're really in this position right now is because China chose to retaliate. So many other countries affirmatively said they did not want to retaliate, we want to negotiate with the Americans, and the Chinese made a different decision. So, it's not a plan to do that. It was a Chinese decision. They have agency here."
When Brennan asked if Greer's prepared for China to consider selling assets it holds in the U.S., and Greer answered saying, "We obviously have to be prepared on our part to have a resilient economy."
During the interview, Brennan and Greer talked about tariff exemptions, with smartphones, computers and other electronics being exempted from Trump administration's escalating trade war with China.
According to a notice published late Friday by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office, a host of popular high-tech products germane to the American consumer won't be subject to tariffs and will buffer the public from cost increases for items ubiquitous in everyday life.
Prior to CBP's notice, Brennan brought up her interview with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who said to Brennan last Sunday that the tariffs are part of a strategy to bring high-tech factories to the U.S.
With high-tech items now being exempted, Brennan asked Greer if it is still the goal to move electronic manufacturing to the U.S., and Greer answered saying:
"We certainly need to have semiconductors, and the downstream electronics supply chain move to the United States. What happened is...it's not really an exception. That's not even the right word for it. What happened is, this type of supply chain moved from the tariff regime for the global tariff, the reciprocal tariff, and it moved to the national security tariff regime, where we have studies ongoing for pharmaceuticals, for semiconductors, metals, etc. So, it's not that they won't be subject to tariffs geared at reshoring. They'll just be under a different regime. It's shifting from one bucket of tariffs to a different bucket of potential tariffs."
Later in the interview, Brennan and Greer talked about the Trump administration negotiating trade deals, with Brennan saying Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent meeting with Japanese officials later this week to talk about "the potential of a trade deal," as well as saying Greer's been "looking at some of these non-tariff barrier issues that the United States sees problems with...including their currency."
This prompted Brennan to ask Greer if the Trump administration is asking "governments to do things like that, not just, you know, to buy into America, but to actually change their own currency and change, like their central bank policy," and Greer responded saying:
"Our view...is that currency manipulation or misalignment, whatever you want to call it, that can have a negative impact on U.S. exporters and unfairly advantage of foreign exports into the United States. In the USMCA and in the Japan-China...the Japan-U.S. deal from the first Trump term, we had chapters with the parties committing not to do currency manipulation. You know, the Treasury Department has a statute to avoid that. So we certainly are in these kinds of discussions with these countries to see if they're willing to make these types of commitments as well."
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Greer, click here.
