GOP Sen. Grassley Puts Pressure on Trump: Lift Tariffs or 'USMCA is Dead'
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says President Donald Trump has a choice to make. Trump can either have his tariff war with China or get congressional backing for a U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but not both.
Grassley outlined his thoughts in an Op-Ed that was published in the Wall Street Journal and reproduced on his own website.
The senator noted that he was never comfortable with Trump’s pro-tariff approach.
“Donald Trump bucked decades of Republican orthodoxy by railing against free-trade agreements. To say I was skeptical of his plans to rip up or renegotiate nearly every major trade deal would be a polite understatement,” he said.
While stating that free trade agreements have served the farmers and people of Iowa well, he also noted, “But I admit Mr. Trump was on to something.”
“He is the first president to take on China’s abuses seriously, from theft of U.S. intellectual property and forced technology transfers to anticompetitive subsidies. He’s opened Argentina’s market to U.S. pork for the first time since 1992. A new deal with Japan could happen by year’s end.”
Grassley gave Trump praise for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement. But he said that before Trump gets the congressional approval he needs, the president has to deal with a “significant roadblock.”
Trump-imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, for which Canada and Mexico passed retaliatory measures, are nothing more than “a tax on Americans,” Grassley wrote.
“Canadian and Mexican trade officials may be more delicate in their language, but they’re diplomats. I’m not. If these tariffs aren’t lifted, USMCA is dead. There is no appetite in Congress to debate USMCA with these tariffs in place,” he said.
Iowa illustrates the extent of the damage being done by the tariffs, according to Grassley.
“[T]ariffs on U.S. pork, to take one example, have lowered the value of live hogs by $12 an animal. Iowa is the top pork-producing state in the country. That means jobs, wages and communities are hurt every day these tariffs continue — as I hear directly from Iowans. It’s time for the tariffs to go,” he said.
Grassley closed by saying that the USMCA trade deal is good for the country and great for the future, but nothing is going to happen until the administration removes the current tariffs.
Grassley is not the only one who has said the new trade agreement can’t move forward without further action from at least one partner.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who leads the Democrat-controlled House, wants Mexico to implement labor reforms and also stronger enforcement of the rules in the new trade agreement, The Hill reported.
In a separate trade-related development, Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin teased the possibility of progress in the long-stalled trade talks between the Trump administration and China, according to The New York Times.
“We’re getting into the final laps,” Mnuchin said.
“I think both sides have a desire to reach an agreement,” Mnuchin added. “We’ve made a lot of progress.”
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