WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, today spoke with United States Trade Representative (USTR) nominee Jamieson Greer about the need to move away from China on trade and unlock new export markets for long term stability.
During the hearing, Grassley emphasized the importance of reducing or eliminating Brazil’s tariff on American ethanol. Grassley also questioned Greer about USTR’s cooperation with the Department of Commerce on trade matters.
Video and excerpts of his questions follow.
VIDEO
Brazilian Tariffs on American Ethanol:
“Brazil is a leading competitor with the United States on agriculture. One example is that Brazil has displaced the United States as the world leader in soybean production.
“Another issue with Brazil that I brought up to your predecessor, Ms. Tai, is the drastically unfair advantage Brazil has on ethanol. U.S. exporters face an 18% tariff on ethanol going to Brazil. However, Brazilian ethanol enjoys nearly duty-free access to the U.S. market.
“I hope you will address this trade imbalance with Brazil that Ambassador Tai wasn’t successful in doing: taking action to reduce or eliminate this harmful tariff on American ethanol.”
The Role of USTR and the Department of Commerce:
“Now that you and Mr. Lutnick have been nominees for several weeks, I’d like to know exactly how much authority do you have on trade matters relative to Mr. Lutnick and other cabinet members?”
Moving Away from China and Unlocking New Markets:
“I’d like to make a statement and see if you agree:
“While I think it is important to hold China to its obligations under the Phase 1 Agreement, I also fear it may keep us reliant on the Chinese markets. So, we need to be looking around the world at other markets.
“We need to balance our short-term profitability with long term stability.
“I have for a long time voiced my own concerns about unfair trade practices by China, and I hope that you and President Trump are successful in holding China accountable on issues including fentanyl, intellectual property theft and government subsidization of industries.
“That said, I believe we must pursue freer trade with other countries to create new markets so that we can move away from China without losing even more global market share of our commodities to Brazil and other countries.
“The free trade agreements that were negotiated under George W. Bush have resulted in large trade surpluses in key industries like agriculture and manufacturing. I think we need more free trade, and I know that President Trump is more interested in bilateral agreements than multi-state agreements.
“I think if we look away from Brazil and South Korea and Japan and China and [the European Union] as being problem countries for us on trade issues. But there’s so many other countries where, if we have these agreements — and I use George W. Bush as an example and his negotiator Allen Johnson — about 13 countries, probably six or seven different agreements with countries you don’t even think much about being significant in world trade, we’ve increased tremendously with these free trade agreements, our surpluses with those countries in trade.”
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