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.
The Constitution gives Congress authority to set taxes, including tariffs. But lawmakers have gradually ceded that authority to the White House.
Trump has been especially aggressive about using the powers of the presidency to impose his trade agenda. He claimed emergency authority to impose his massive tariffs last Wednesday. He earlier used the same powers to hit Chinese, Canadian and Mexican imports.
Trump also has bypassed Congress to tax steel, aluminum and auto imports on the grounds that they pose a national security threat to the United States.
Now lawmakers — including some Republicans — are suggesting that Congress needs to reassert its authority over trade.
“Donald Trump’s aimless, chaotic tariff spree has proven beyond a doubt that Congress has given far too much of its constitutional power over international trade to the executive branch,” Wyden said. "It is time to take that power back.''
Grassley, the Iowa Republican, and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington last week introduced legislation that would require presidents to justify new tariffs to Congress. Lawmakers would then have 60 days to approve the tariffs. Otherwise, they would expire.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune showed no sign that he would allow a vote on a bipartisan bill that would exert congressional oversight of Trump’s tariffs.
“I don’t think that has a future,” Thune said of a bill from Grassley and Cantwell.
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AP Writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
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