Budget Hearing – The Office of the United States Trade Representative

without objection uh the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time uh i would like to welcome everyone to this morning's hearing uh and the committee's first budget hearing of the fiscal year twenty seven cycle uh thank you to our subcommittee members and to ambassador greer for being here today USTR's fiscal twenty-seven budget request totals ninety-five million, an increase of eight percent from fiscal twenty-six. The budget request includes funding for increased personnel investments to enable USTR to protect national security, address unfair trade practices, and open foreign markets for UST. Your role as the President's Principal Trade Advisor and Negotiator on Trade Issues is vital to the success of President Trump's trade agenda. The fiscal year twenty-seven budget request for the office of the United States Trade Representative comes at an important time. The administration has announced trade deals with many of our key trading partners. and is actively working on uh renegotiating the us mexico canada agreement with our neighbors just last month ustr also launched various section three O one tariff investigations aimed at addressing unfair trade practices relating to forced labor and excess manufacturing capacity by over sixty nations. USTR has taken on increased focus and responsibility, and Congress has worked to meet your needs by providing targeted funding increases. USTR must ensure that rival nations like the People's Republic of China are not able to take advantage of Americans by engaging in unfair trade practices. we must also not allow china to export deadly fentanyl precursor chemicals flooding north america and poisoning our children. i look forward to uh hearing how the president's budget request for usgr furthers our shared goals of responsibly managing taxpayer dollars while expanding market access for domestic producers protecting national uh security and combating unfair trade practices, particularly by geopolitical foes like China. Let me now recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee, Miss Ming.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and I join you in welcoming Ambassador Greer for his first appearance before our subcommittee. This opportunity to discuss this administration's trade policies which have created chaos uncertainty and high cost for american families and businesses is quite timely i also look forward to hearing from you about your fiscal year twenty seven budget request i support trade policies that protect american workers consumers and businesses from unfair trade practices promote access to global markets strengthen trust and collaboration with our allies and bolster our national when smartly targeted and applied tariffs can be a useful tool in our tool belt to address unfair trade practices and congress has provided the president with limited tariff authorities but what we have seen from this administration has been an unlawful tariff and trade policy that is chaotic not transparent ripe for corruption damaging to our closest allies and deeply harmful to the american people and businesses it claims to protect tariff rates changed countless times in a single year policies were announced on social media and reversed just days later american businesses were unable to make basic decisions about what to buy because the rules could change overnight in february the supreme court ruled that the international emergency economic powers act does not authorize the international emergency economic powers act does not authorize the international international emergency economic powers act does not authorize the international emergency economy powers act does not authorize the international emergency economic powers act does not authorize the international emergency economic powers act the international emergency economic powers act does not authorize the international emergency economic powers act does not authorize the international emergency economic powers act the international emergency economic powers act does not authorize that left the government owing over a hundred sixty six billion with interest growing by the millions per day to the american businesses that paid those illegal duties unfortunately the damage of the illegal tariff regime has already been felt by american families who have paid more for clothes groceries and other items businesses have faced higher material costs and retaliatory tariffs on their own exports the administration did not come to congress and seek lawful tariff authority instead it reached for the next untested statute within hours of the supreme court ruling the president signed a proclamation invoking section one twenty two of the trade act of nineteen seventy four to impose a ten percent global tariff the next day he announced on social media that the rate would increase to fifteen percent no formal policy has been issued these tariffs expire this summer and already facing legal challenges at the same time the administration has indicated it will pursue dozens of new investigations under section three O one and two thirty-two to impose yet another set of tariffs the result for americans has been chaos uncertainty and a higher cost of living according to one independent analysis ninety percent of the economic burden of tariffs fell on us companies and consumers in twenty twenty five this has resulted in an in an effective tax increase of nearly seventeen hundred dollars on the average american household this administration told us that the terrorists would boost american industry but they have not in twenty twenty five the trade deficit in goods hit a record high and over eighty thousand manufacturing jobs were lost after getting a boost from historic investments under the biden administration spending on us factory construction has fallen every month since the beginning of president trump's second term in office in new york those costs have hit us even harder according to an analysis by the manhattan chamber of commerce new york households face an estimate uh estimated forty two hundred dollars in additional annual costs due to tariffs in the middle of a housing crisis they have added around eleven thousand to the cost of building each single new single family home. And in the second quarter of twenty twenty five, as tariffs ramped up, the city saw a net loss of approximately forty nine hundred businesses, the weakest quarter for business formation in five years. The state comptroller reported just weeks ago that exports to Canada are state's most significant trading partner declined by three point eight billion dollars. As the chair of the congressional asian pacific american caucus, i have been sounding the alarm on this issue since the beginning there are more than three million asian-american native hawaiian and pacific islander owned small businesses across this country and many of them rely on imports of goods that cannot be produced domestically yet are still subject to tariffs i have seen the impacts of these tariffs first hand in my own district in queens just last month i led my colleagues in local and state government's on a tour of flushing queens where we heard that cost for small businesses are through the roof what makes all of this worse is the two tiered pay to play system this administration has created the wealthy and well-connected are cutting deals for themselves while main street businesses like does and flushing are left out and pay the price tariff exemptions and favorable rate adjustments are granted behind closed doors with no formal criteria no application process and meanwhile small businesses across new york city are absorbing approximately four point five billion dollars annually in added tariff costs they don't have lobbyists in washington to help them make their case for relief and they shouldn't be treated as collateral damage while the president uses tariffs as leverage to reward friends and extract favors the prices of groceries gas gas clothing and homes are skyrocketing

the thank you miss mack uh i would like now to recognize our witness so i'm

uh

for an opening statement. Without objection, your written statement will be entered into the record. Uh, I would ask that you keep your statement hopefully to five minutes, uh, so we can have additional time for questions. Gentleman is recognized.

Thank you Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Mang for having me today. I'm glad we can gather for this hearing today. I'm looking forward to our conversation. And before discussing the activities of the Office of the United States Trade Representative, detail and the resources my office needs to continue our good work in twenty twenty seven i wanna make one overarching point and that is that president trump trade policy is working for the american people us trade goods trade deficit has decreased by twenty four percent between april twenty twenty five when tariffs first went into place through february twenty twenty six compared to the same period a year earlier so twenty four percent decrease uh it's gone down by over thirty percent with china in particular so we're diversifying away from that which uh us exports reached three hundred and two billion in january twenty twenty six and nearly three hundred and fifteen billion in february twenty twenty six the highest monthly export figures in us history so when i hear people say that somehow our exports are affected it's for the positive we've never exported so much for the united states as we are now food and agricultural exports rose by double digits in twenty twenty five manufacturing labor productivity registered its highest annual increase in fifteen years and manufacturing workers' wages are up by an average of eighteen hundred dollars. We we produced more steel than Japan last year for the first time in a long time, and orders for capital equipment that go into factories are surging, all because of President Trump decided to take trade seriously. And as you know and has been discussed, last April President Trump imposed reciprocal tariffs in response to the national emergency caused by our large and persistent trade deficit of one point two trillion which had increased by forty percent over the previous four years. The result is that we had lost, and continue to lose, the manufacturing capacity that supports our workers fuels us innovation and safeguards our economic and national security and these tariffs have been instrumental in creating a level playing field for american workers and creating incentives to build grow and produce more in the united states at a higher wage for our workers last week during a swing through the heart of american manufacturing in michigan and ohio i was encouraged to see the results of a thirteen billion dollar investment by the owners of the dodge and jeep brands and the return of auto production lines to america from overseas sixty million dollar expansion by whirlpool creating an additional a hundred fifty jobs in collide ohio and highly automated facilities producing drones tooling and dyes and solar panels can't account for new york state policies and taxes that drive away business uh because all of these other developments are being spurred by president trump's tariffs and alongside the tariff program the president has also secured deals with numerous trading partners to address the unfair practices that contributed to our trade deficit and these new trade deals cover over half the world's population we have nine agreements on reciprocal trade with countries like malaysia cambodia el salvador guatemala argentina bangladesh taiwan indonesia and ecuador and they represent real meaningful new market access for american exports the kind that american farmers and manufacturers were promised that the world trade organization would achieve but did not we've also inked deals with the united kingdom the european union japan excuse me japan and south korea and we're looking forward to finalize even more deals in the weeks and months ahead and these agreements have achieved long-standing us trade priorities many that have uh festered for decades including the lowering of foreign tariffs on most US exports and elimination of unfair non-tariff barriers. For example, eight countries have exempted American meat and cheese products from geographical indication rules that prevented the use of common marketing terms. Eleven countries have agreed to accept US automotive emission and safety standards. Nine countries have agreed to accept USFDA approvals for new treatment and medicines. We've also received strong commitments from our trading partners to enhance intellectual property protection. provide a level playing field for US companies with respect to their domestic labor and environmental production standards, and improve coordination on economic security. The president's trade program continues, despite the Supreme Court's decision in February. Within hours, the president uh reimposed tariffs using section one twenty two. And a few weeks ago, uh we signed another agreement on reciprocal trade with Ecuador. So the program continues. And as we continue to address our trading partners' unfair practices, uh we are using our investigatory powers granted to us by Congress. to investigate forced labor in other countries and structural excess capacity that lead to global imbalances in president trump's first term this tool section three O one was used to great effect to establish a stable and durable approach to trade that has received bipartisan support as you know the section three one tariffs on china for forced technology are still in effect today not only did president biden keep those tariffs in place but he even expanded them showing bipartisan bipartisan support for this tool so with all of this new work uh USTR needs to have the uh to to meet the need the USTR team is dedicated to helping american blue collar workers american farmers and families in the communities they support but we can only uh meet those obligations we have to americans if we have the resources that we need uh whether it's negotiating new agreements or enforcing uh agreements uh we need to be able to have the personnel uh to do that last year this committee heard our call for more resources and generously increased USTR's appropriation and we're spending that money now to hire new negotiators economists attorneys and other such and and these help strengthen uh the agency uh for the benefit of the american people and so this year president trump has requested that usr's budget be increased to ninety five million seven million dollar total increase over fy twenty s twenty six and this will enable us to do the hiring we need to secure level playing field secure new market access for american farmers and workers reindustrialize our country and fully achieve all the wins uh we've gained through our agreements on reciprocal trade and i think our shared interest in doing what's best for america should allow us to continue to meaningfully collaborate as we work together and i approach this hearing in that spirit uh thank you for your consideration of the president's budget request and i look forward to your questions

thank you ambassador greer we will now proceed under the five minute uh rule for questions i'll begin by recognizing myself president trump uh has made trade one of his core policies during his second term in office. And you and your office uh are very busy carrying out this strategically important agenda. As a result, Congress provided a funding increase of fourteen million dollars in fiscal twenty-six to uh match this increase in workload. Please share with us today why USTR requested an additional seven million dollars in fiscal Twenty seven.

Thank you, Chairman. I want to express again gratitude for the committee, uh, for extending our uh appropriation last year. Uh, we are finally now, after having many employees who left the agency during the Biden administration, we're finally getting up to full strength. But over the last year we concluded nine additional trade agreements. That's the most we've ever done in a single year at USTR. And what's important to us going forward, is to be able not only to conclude more agreements but to be able to enforce these agreements. Uh and these agreements are very important because they open up markets overseas. We have countries that have lowered their tariffs for us. We've been asking for decades. They finally have done it. But on top of that we have countries who have made commitments on forced labor, uh environmental regulation, intellectual property, non-tariff barriers. And if we don't have the personnel to monitor and enforce these agreements, we will we will not fully realize all of the benefits. Uh we're at the beginning of

ambassador as you know the uh growing economic and technological threat posed by the chinese communist party is a bipartisan concern uh can you explain how the usta budget request strengthens the nation's ability to counter china's

uh certainly so with respect to china we expect that with these additional funds a portion of that will go to ensuring we have appropriate uh staff in our policy team who know these issues with respect to china their their economy is different than ours they use extreme subsidies uh they control their private sector in a way we don't they use measures uh they they constantly uh issue new measures and we need to be able to have them resources to understand those measures and respond to them we would also use this funding for uh enforcement resources so as we're working with the chinese we're trying to have a constructive relationship with them and we want to be able to trade in non-sensitive areas with them in a balanced way but we also need to make sure that we have enforcement available where if the chinese violate any deals we make or take other unfair trade practices or engage in other unfair trade practices we have the the negotiators the subject matter experts the economists and the attorneys we need uh to conduct investigations and make sure that we're defending american interests

how do you expect to ex- uh advance the administration's efforts to counter china during president trump's meeting with the chinese president next month

so about one month ago i with the secretary of the treasury met with our counterparts uh to discuss outcomes for uh the meetings of president xi and president trump next month uh we expect that that meeting will go smoothly uh we expect that we will prolong stability uh in our trade and economic relationship with the chinese on the one hand we wanna make sure we can continue to receive the receive the rare earth minerals uh that most of the world is dependent upon china for and at the same time we also wanna be able to insure that the chinese are buying things from us uh that americans are good at making this means agricultural products it means airplanes it means medical devices uh there are certain things we're we're fine to import from china as well so we want to have an outcome geared toward having balanced trade with china and a and a managed trade relationship with them uh to avoid surprises avoid escalation and insure that the trading relationship is for the benefit of americans

ambassador uh greer china has long supplied the precursor chemicals that are used to produce fentanyl that ends up in the united states and killing tens of thousands of our young people um what is uh ustr doing to ensure that china stops supplying these chemicals that are killing americans

well last year the president imposed tariffs on china uh to stop these uh chemicals and of course we had uh a partisan uh view where others tried to remove this and eliminate this this leverage against the chinese all that being said whenever we speak with the chinese we bring staff with us from the national security council and other agencies to engage with the chinese and ask them to control uh not only fentanyl but the precursor drugs uh and to and and if we have information available on specific companies or shipments we'll share that with the chinese and so there is incremental progress uh fortunately we've had uh fentanyl deaths decline over the past year which is good but there's a lot more to be done and certainly the chinese uh have a lot more they can do on that front

late last year the us closed the so-called de minimus blue pole that allowed shipments of low dollar value to enter the us with minimal inspection how has closing the de minimis loophole helped combat the importation of these precursor chemicals

so we have we have found in the past that other countries china mexico uh and others have used the the loophole under de minimis which typically has very little scrutiny at the border to send shipments of fentanyl and precursor drugs uh and also counterfeit

How is USGAR and the Trump administration ensuring that China is following through and that these efforts are working to stop the flow of fentanyl into our country?

Well, again, uh whenever we meet with the chinese which we do so regularly both at my level and at staff and deputy levels uh we raise this issue and we assess their progress on on controlling items uh and they have in fact uh controlled additional fentanyl precursors and and we've seen action on that front there is much more to be done um and we we're happy to have uh in use leverage with authorities uh if congress wants to give us additional authorities on tariffs to uh combat fentanyl we're happy to take that and use it uh it's been a opposed uh by others in congress um but we will continue to raise it with the chinese to fight this battle

will that be on the agenda when the president goes to china

uh it will be yes sir

thank you miss ming

thank you mister chairman uh mister ambassador this administration initially said that there would be no exceptions to these tariffs but has since issued a long list of exceptions across multiple executive and annexes with no formal public process uh even without a formal exclusion process through which companies can request tariff exclusions for certain products it looks like the administration has effectively granted tariff exclusions for certain products companies and categories uh i was wondering if there was ever a formal notice or public comment period for any of these exclusion decisions

uh so ranking member thank you so at the beginning of this of this term when the president sought to impose tariffs uh he made a decision that he did not want to have broad exclusion and exemption programs uh he felt it created uh it undermined the program to some degree and so to the extent that the president has adjusted product coverage from time to time it's been in response to analyses done by economists within the administration you know one example is last november uh after concluding negotiations with many countries the president decided uh he should remove tariffs from certain goods that either cannot be naturally grown here things like bananas or coffee or things that can't naturally be extracted here uh he also made a a decision that you know certain items that could be might be covered by a later in section two thirty two investigation which is a different tariff authority controlled by the commerce department uh that those should those should be separate issues and so they shouldn't necessarily be a part of the reciprocal tariff program uh so to the extent that the coverage was adjusted it would for kind of broad-based principles like that things we we literally can't grow or extract from the ground or things that are gonna be covered by other tariff programs

thank you for that do you think that there should have and i i i hear that do you think that there should have been a more public or formal process for stakeholders people in the industry businesses and industries that would directly be impacted

so so we have had you know hundreds if not thousands of meetings with stakeholders who have an interest and you know certainly i you know i take your point you know a big a big company with lobbyists you know it's they have more resources to come in and talk about it um we also talk to trade associations who represent a broader group and we do talk to small businesses and often we talk to congressional um offices where small businesses feel like they have a larger voice uh with the section three O one investigations we're doing these do in fact have uh by law a a public process and so we just closed yesterday our comment process that was very public

no i appreciate your um comments about the three O one process um i was asking more specifically about the IEPA and now section one twenty two um and if if you have um information

yes

or records on on data and and some of the trends of the conversations that the administration has had with stakeholders uh it would be really helpful i think a lot of us and i can speak for both sides of the aisle i think are concerned about a lot of our small businesses small manufacturers that are seeing their costs spike and deciding you know do i do they eat the costs or do they put it onto the uh customers our consumers our our constituents um because of these uh global tariffs under the iepo part and now section one twenty two um but i just wanna make the case to the government that a product if if someone wants to make a case to the government that a product that is critical to their business um should be excluded what process would a small business or manufacturer in our district go undergo

so i so right now um with respect to section one twenty two um that that that legal authority uh has a fairly narrow um authority with respect to um it gives the president a lot of discretion within that um which which is fortunate uh but the idea is you want it it's for a global tariff we've imposed a global tariff there with with section three O one which my office runs and section two thirty two which the commerce department runs both of those processes have federal register notices opportunities and i have been encouraging people who have a view on product coverage for tariffs uh to comment uh to put in their comments there's both a public comment process if they're concerned about confidentiality there's a way you know bracket and and provide confidential information as well so we're trying to make it as simple as possible for anyone in the country who wants to comment they can do so they can do it confidentially they can do it publicly they can do it you know through a lobbyist or just themselves and and send a letter

yeah i and again you know i'm just looking out for our small businesses and our manufacturers who for you know almost a whole year were paying these iepah tariffs with no way to seek relief they don't have fancy lobbyists

uh so so far uh ranking member the president has used tariff authorities provided by

mmm mmm

so so those are in place i know that there have been many bills proposed by by different members of of of the house included uh that would actually impose a global tariff and higher tariffs on on countries that pose a bigger problem we would be supportive of many of those so there are proposals out there we're happy to talk to anybody and everybody about them uh i know congresswoman van duyn has something uh uh uh representative golden from the democratic side had something these are things where i think we would be supportive we're happy to decide

OK. Sorry, I'll yield back.

Uh, Mister Strong.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, uh, Chairman Rogers, Ranking Member Mien for holding this important hearing. Uh, Ambassador Greer, it's great to be with you again, and I thank you for being here today and for your work in advancing a trade agenda that puts American workers and businesses first. America is back. Uh, my district and Alabama's fifth district has homed over four hundred companies working on advanced technologies tied to national defense space and homeland security along with a large agriculture presence Ambassador Greer can you speak to what USTR is doing to strengthen export control enforcement?

Uh, certainly, and and I'm I'm always glad to hear the the list of industries you have in your district cause it matches up really well with a lot of the foreign market access that we're getting in our, in our. trade agreements and so we've that's why we've seen uh record numbers of exports uh here in the united states with respect to export control enforcement uh it's the operationally uh that's part of the commerce department i know they're they're very diligently working at that in our agreements that we are carrying out we are asking our trading partners for the first time in any trade agreement to to align with us on export controls and export control enforcement our view is that if you're going to trade favorably with the united states We should also take our economic and national security concerns into account. And so we are having a lot of commitments from our trading partners that they will respect our export controls.

Thank you. Uh, what additional personnel, resources, or authorities would help ensure uh, that the rules we put in place are being enforced effectively on the ground?

Well, in terms of resources, the President's budget proposal for USTR uh gets at that to some degree. We've asked for an additional seven million with the vast bulk of that just going to salaries uh for new civil servants to supplement the folks I have now,

thank you ambassador greer uh in north alabama many small businesses are

uh uh Uh, certainly. Uh, certainly. So, So, so first and foremost, so first and foremost as the president has said frequently, as the president has said frequently, uh, uh, you know, you if you build in America and you source from America, if you build in America and you source from America, you don't pay a tariff in America. you do not pay a tariff in America. Our our most important free trade agreement is the constitution of the united states and that's why we're so competitive that's why trade actually only makes up about twenty percent of american g d p for most countries more than fifty percent so so our our market is the most important now obviously we're going to import and we want to be able to have supply chains that are that are secure and resilient uh we have made a series of deals over the past year uh uh with with countries making up over half the world's population and those deals have specific tariff rates and we intend to hold to those deals we've we have we have been focused on continuity for the tariff rates uh you know tools may change legal tools may change but the policy remains the same uh and i think with respect to the section two thirty two uh which is not in my wheelhouse it's the commerce department uh they've been fairly consistent they occasionally uh adjust their tariff rates uh to respond to stakeholder concerns uh or to you know compliance concerns and things like that so i we we are maintaining the trade policy and we want to have continuity for the reasons you described.

Thank you. North Alabama farmers, along with farmers across this country, continue to face low commodity prices while competing against heavily subsidized foreign producers. Cotton prices today are approximately the same price per pound as they were in the nineteen seventies under President Jimmy Carter. We need to stop importing foreign cotton from other countries. Ambassador Greer, what actions is USTR taking to expand market access for American agriculture and push back against countries that impose unfair barriers on us beef poultry and row crop

uh i would give i i have mentioned the agreements on reciprocal trade we have concluded over the past year few times i give indonesia as an example this is a country this is the fourth largest country in the world by population and and and for the past few years they put all kinds of barriers to our ag and we had an ag trade deficit with indonesia we have now required them to remove their tariffs and non-tariff barriers on ag and we're starting to see that go the other way

thank you my last fifteen seconds

back to july uh we're pleased to welcome to the hearing uh the ranking member of the full committee mr. Lowe

thank you very much mr. chairman and for ranking is this is i think the fourth hearing this morning so it's it's kind of uh i appreciate um

uh-huh

uh the opportunity to be here and i wanna say uh welcome to you ambassador greer it's great to see you again um and uh i thank you for being here and and engaging with us um uh on the campaign trail in office uh president trump made lot of promises about trade policy about putting more money in our pockets create millions and millions of new manufacturing jobs um that was the most pro-american manufacturing and jobs policy jobs in factories this is all quotes jobs in factories will come roaring back into our country there's a reality here uh which is different uh the tariffs have exacerbated the cost of living crisis american families paid more than seventeen hundred dollars each in tariff costs last year things are only getting worse as the war of choice with iran continues to drive up the cost of gas groceries everyday goods um question of manufacturing and jobs US trade deficit in manufactured goods was sixty two billion dollars higher in twenty twenty five compared to twenty twenty four not exactly the manufacturing renaissance that was uh that was promised so ambassador greer how many manufacturing jobs um uh do you know that the united states lost per day uh during the the president's first year in office

so the last two years the biden administration two hundred thirty thousand manufacturing jobs In the first quarter of this year we have net positive on manufacturing jobs. After forty years of of offshoring, it takes more than one year to get them all back.

Uh, well, but let me let me just tell you what the Bureau of Labor Statistics has said. OK, I I've used it, US manufacturing lost more than one hundred jobs per day from February twenty twenty five to February twenty twenty six. That's more than eighty eight thousand in total. Not a trade policy that delivers for working uh uh uh people. So Um, let me, if I can, uh, move on. Uh, and another reason for the decline in manufacturing is that incentives, you spoke about offshoring, the incentives for offshoring in our trade deals continue to operate. Uh, U- the USMCA, which we both worked on together, uh, the president, um, uh, he targeted at this as this was incredible, uh, was the most important quote, most important trade deal that we've made so far. Since USMCA entered into force, offshoring has continued. Agriculture equipment, automobiles, dishwashers, tires, companies across the country are moving, threatening to move production to Mexico, to take advantage of USMCA's rules and Mexico's relatively lower wages in labor productions. Me- uh, Mexican manufacturing wages remain roughly forty percent lower than their Chinese counterparts, eighty-eight percent lower than those in the United. I believe you and I agree on USMCA, that it's not just re a review, that there needs to be a renegotiation. Uh, you've indicated that while, um, uh, uh, not every issue with USMCA will be resolved by July one, ongoing discussions with Mexico and the discussions with Canada will focus on priority issues. So what issues are you prioritizing for discussion with those countries? What are the top items for discussion? We're sticking to and what about closing the loopholes that incentivize offshoring or allow china to take advantage of the deal's benefits have it must be at the top of your list but let's talk about your priorities

uh it is and i i agree with you uh representative delorio i think you and i are aligned on so many of these issues and and the president is right um the president is very focused on outcomes and when we did usmca which we did together uh we were excited about a lot of things we've done the rapid response mechanism which we have continued to

right it was a it was the floor and not a ceiling rapid response was critical

that's right and and we've continued to use it but we look at outcomes and the outcomes indeed they're continued offshoring toward mexico i'm going to mexico next week i'm going to speak with my counterpart and i have already told him and we've already had conversations about changing the rules of origin just kind of a granular topic

right we need to do right

uh this is how we avoid the transshipment through mexico and it's how we make it tougher and i will say it's also important for us to have outside to have a tariff level that incentivizes compliance

well look uh uh i i just say overall and uh you you you you won't agree i believe that the president's trade policy is worse than the cost of living crisis we've raised prices we've not fulfilled the promises on jobs and manufacturing

uh

uh that he promised in the uh it there's an opportunity opportunity you know to turn that around including again through the usmca renegotiation i'm looking forward to staying in touch on on that process and uh looking at what are the kinds of of of of uh uh incentives that uh or uh uh um proposals that we can make in order to look at how we can renegotiate this and and make it work and have it be a worker centric trade-off. agreement which is where our trade agreements should be i thank you and i thank you mister chairman

thank you gentlelady uh we have a series of votes on the floor which will require us to recess uh the hearing until the last vote in the series of votes on the floor so the subcommittee will now stand in recess subject to the call of the chair the plan will be to reconvene after the last floor vote in the series bye order we will uh proceed with questions from uh mr. alford

thank you dean and uh ranking member meng thank you so much for U. S. Trade Representatives' work has real consequences for America's farmers, our manufacturers and small businesses. A strong pro-America trade agenda like this administration's focuses on strict enforcement and better deals, helps our producers complete globally, and strengthens our supply chains here at home. In Missouri's fourth congressional district, we see the benefits of the President's pro-America trade policies, each and every day. When our beef, pork, soybeans, manufactured goods and small business exports face unfair barriers or delayed access the impact hits our communities immediately. We need USTR fully engaged in breaking down those barriers, enforcing commitments and expanding opportunities abroad. Today, I want to understand how this budget request supports stronger trade enforcement, faster market opening, and a more resilient supply chain for American industry. This committee expects transparency with clear priorities, measurable results, and consistent communications with Congress. What I hope to learn today is how USTR plans to deliver for American workers, farmers, manufacturers, and small businesses. Ambassador, thank you for being here today. I really want to focus on the ag sector, in particular, in Missouri, it's home to more than eighty thousand farms, the second highest number of farms of any state in the nation, second to Texas. We have sixteen thousand farms in my district alone. Our farmers, producers and rural manufacturers continue to face significant pressure from rising input cost. And I wanna make this clear, I don't like looking in the rear-view mirror all the time, but a lot of those input costs were due to the war on fossil fuels from the previous administration. Farmers are trying to catch up. Demand continues to soar. How is USTR prioritizing trade actions that directly impact the cost and availability of key ag inputs such as fertilizers chemicals and feedstocks?

Uh, thank you Congressman uh and we're uh again always glad to hear about the, you know, robust agricultural activity uh, you know, we've been, as you know, we've been opening markets around and and we're cutting down that ag trade deficit that grew up during the biden administration uh when it comes to the the input cost uh you know we think about things like fertilizer right just yesterday i was in a meeting uh with secretary Rawlins uh secretary Letnick and handful of others and we met with folks all along the supply chain fertilizer manufacturers traders uh you know state ag commissioners etcetera to talk about this very issue um you know the president is quite focused on it on on the one hand the good news is we have a lot of domestic production of fertilizer right here in the united states uh there are certain elements like potash that comes in from canada uh we don't have a lot of potash here that was never subject to any kind of tariff or anything like that um you know our our sense is that you the the trade policy is a long-term policy it's about reshoring it's about manufacturing uh but there are certain markets where we just don't involve oil and gas certain hydrocarbons you know you know lng it's at the uh heart of some of some fertilizer manufacturing

China continues to dominate key supply chains for inputs like fertilizers, feedstock and industrial components. How is USTR using tariff tools and trade enforcement to reduce US dependency on China and strengthen domestic production?

Yeah, thank you. So as I uh in in my opening comments I mentioned that the president's tariff program, again which it really extends back to his first term when he first imposed tariffs on China, President Biden kept

How much stronger are we now than we were two years ago when it comes to trade? You know, I know some small business owners, this de minimis, um, uh, doing away with that has has has impacted their business, but overall, the American economy, how much better off are we?

Well, well, first of all, we've had we've had wages go up. So when we think about trade, we think about, uh, exports, and I've already, you know, mentioned today, January and February of this year were the highest exports in US history, over three hundred billion dollars each month. so that so we're winning on that front um wages especially manufacturing wages went up by five percent last year and this is for like non supervisory this is for people on the line working uh we see manufacturing productivity go up uh and in the first quarter of this year we saw manufacturing jobs uh be positive in the quarter for the first time since twenty twenty three uh so all of those trends are going in the right direction

thank you ambassador and i yield back

gentleman yields back mister ivy

Thank you, Mister Chair, Ranking Member, Ambassador, thank you for being here today. I wanna ask you about um, IPA tariffs, um, in the wake of the learning resources decision by the Supreme Court. The um, issue seems to be that, uh, I think a hundred and sixty-six billion or so was collected, uh, with respect to the And after the court declared them illegal, that, you know, the issue became, well, how will the money be refunded to the people who paid the tariffs? Um, and there's sort of two sets of issues that I wanted to touch on. One in particular is, what happens to regular people who paid money in the form of higher costs, uh, or higher prices? Is there some kind of process that's gonna be put in place or that is in place for them to get a refund? The, um, department of homeland security i guess it was um cbp put in uh a program that starts on monday and that's i i think it's called cape um and the idea there is that um entities that are the importer of record or the license customs broker can file a a a request with respect to the entity or the department um and seek a declaration for repayment And I think about two thousand companies or so have have sought that already. Um, and there's gonna be a process where they can try and recover the funds that they put in. Um, I haven't seen what's gonna happen with respect to regular people. And as you move down the supply chain, um, the smaller businesses, I'm gonna focus on individual customers here, but smaller businesses are facing sort of similar issues too. Some in my district have raised this with me. So is there gonna be a process in place or is there one already? that will help to to make sure that people at the other end of the supply chain, not just the big corporations and the like at the front-end of it, but the regular people are gonna have a chance to get some sort of uh refund for the money they paid in the form of the tariff the tariffs that the Supreme Court said are now illegal.

Uh sure, thanks Congressman. So again the tariffs were imposed to protect American jobs and and uh reversed the offshoring that happened for for decades. This money was in the general treasury, uh it was the taxpayers money that was brought in it was assessed on foreign goods made by foreign workers who worked for foreign companies that's where the money came from and then we had a bunch of democrat attorneys general who sued and in their suit congressman this is relevant because they asked for the money just to go back to the companies so the democrat attorneys general asked for this and they're getting what they asked for they could have asked for equitable relief they could have asked for all kinds of things they're getting exactly what they asked for cbp has set up a program like you mentioned and they'll send the money back to to the people who paid it

well If I might, um, I appreciate that comment, but during the course of the the federal litigation, the the Trump administration stated that if the terrorists were found to be illegal, they would refund the money. So there was a stipulations made in multiple cases as this relitigation rose up by the administration for the repayment. So, what I'm not seeing though is a way to get the money back to, as I stated in the predicate to the question. whether it's smaller businesses on the supply chain or regular customers, and I'll add this too, even if it's a case that state AGs only ask for that particular um remedy, that doesn't block the administration from trying to find ways to refund the money for people. So for example, there's a you guys got a letter from um Governor Pritzker and he proposed seventeen hundred dollar liquidated damage amount. He only spoke about the people of Illinois, but that's one possibility. There's two bills that are pending here in the House now, Mister Cuellar, Miss, Miss Crockett. The Crockett bill proposes putting together, the administration putting together a process to uh, through the Department of Treasury for repayment. Um, Mister Cuellar does something roughly similar, but um, his would focus more on targeting lower income who made the payment. So, I think there's a cut-off at four hundred thousand dollars. I'm not wedded to any of those. I'm agnostic on it. But I guess the question is, is the administration gonna do anything to make sure that regular people who paid higher prices are gonna get some money back? Cuz if if you don't, what'll happen is the corporations are gonna get sort of double compensation, uh, which I think is an unjust enrichment. They'll get the benefit of having charged the higher prices at the front-end, and they'll get the the benefit of the refund for through the process that you all have set up. So, is there anything that's gonna be done by the administration to try and address that?

Right. Let's see, I'm I'm short on time here. Uh, the the one thing I'd say is Governor Pritzker's Attorney General asked for the money to go to the corporations, so he gets what he lays in the bed that he made. We have asked companies that they should give, if they get a refund, they should give it to their workers as bonuses. It was money in the general treasury, it was going toward the re-industrialization of America, and the Democrat Attorney General said, no, we want to go back to the companies who import foreign

I yield back.

So, how many yields back, Mr. Klein?

Thank you, uh, Mr. Greer, for being here, on talk about apples, uh, and then Korea, and if we got time, EU. Um, US apple growers spent two decades of time and money to develop a year-round apple market in India. In twenty eighteen, US apples were fifty-three percent of the apples imported to India. India's fifty percent tariff on apples, has greatly hindered US growers' efforts to rebuild the market. After several years of retaliation, US apples are now only eight point five percent of imports. Apples from Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan are nearly fifty percent. Competitors in New Zealand and the EU will soon enjoy preferential treatment under trade agreements with India and further chisel away the market US growers built. US apple growers need a better deal. The references to India reducing tariffs for US agricultural products in the framework agreement announced in February was positive. As an agreement on reciprocal trade,