The Senate Committee on Finance will hold a confirmation hearing Thursday for Jamieson Greer, President Donald Trump’s nominee for United States Trade Representative (USTR). Here are three areas relating to his views on international trade and investment that senators should consider exploring.
1. Will he challenge China’s unfair trade practices at the World Trade Organization (WTO)?
Background: Earlier this year, USTR released an 86-page report to Congress on China’s WTO compliance. According to that report, “China has a long record of violating, disregarding and evading existing WTO rules.” Greer has similarly criticized China’s failure to comply with its WTO commitments. However, the Joe Biden Administration failed to challenge any of China’s policies at the WTO, and the first Trump Administration largely relied on unilateral challenges. The United States should ensure that China and our other trading partners are playing by the rules by initiating WTO challenges whenever feasible.
2. What role should Congress play in trade policy?
Background: Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress authority over foreign commerce and duties. In recent years, several members of Congress have expressed concern that the executive branch has disregarded the role Congress is intended to play in trade policy. Greer appears to believe that Congress should allow the Trump Administration to unilaterally rewrite the U.S. tariff code with respect to China, a massive delegation of its tariff authority. The Finance Committee should take this opportunity to determine how he would work to improve the relationship between the executive branch and the legislative branch on trade policy.
3. What can we learn from the failure of Section 301 tariffs on China?
Background: In 2017, the Trump Administration launched an investigation into “China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation.” The investigation led to the imposition of tariffs that, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission, were nearly entirely paid by Americans. These tariffs have cost Americans the equivalent of approximately $1,800 per household so far. The Department of Agriculture calculated that U.S. agricultural export losses due to retaliatory tariffs totaled more than $25.7 billion during 2018 through the end of 2019. Last year, USTR concluded that the tariffs had a negative impact on aggregate U.S. economic welfare. However, China’s practices not only failed to improve, they actually got worse in many areas.
As USTR, Greer would play an important role in implementing the Trump Administration’s stated policy of defending Americans’ freedom to choose from a variety of goods, combating the high cost of living, and pursuing an America First trade policy that benefits American workers, manufacturers, farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, and businesses. These questions may help the Finance Committee ascertain how he would pursue these goals.