Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Jamison Greer is joining us now, Jamison, Ambassador, thank you
Speaker 2: so much for being with us. I know you've been
Speaker 2: incredibly busy. I can imagine you haven't slept much. I
Speaker 2: am curious how much we're seeing the end of negotiations
Speaker 2: or the beginning of the end, as there still seem
Speaker 2: to be some loose ends to be tied up.
Speaker 1: Well, I would say that, you know, we've spent the
Speaker 1: past one hundred and twenty days negotiating with dozens and
Speaker 1: dozens of countries, and with some of these countries the
Speaker 1: deals have been good enough that the President's been willing
Speaker 1: to accept them. With other countries, they're just going have
Speaker 1: a tariff. But we have you know, you can look
Speaker 1: at some of the information that's gone out there. We
Speaker 1: have fact sheets, We have a joint statement with Indonesia
Speaker 1: that give some details. You know, we'll be finishing the
Speaker 1: paperwork in the next weeks and maybe a couple of months,
Speaker 1: but these deals are pretty much set.
Speaker 3: They are set right. We wouldn't make an agreement of less.
Speaker 1: We all knew the contra of it, and the countries
Speaker 1: knew it, and it's an exciting time because the President
Speaker 1: has essentially reset the global trading system, and so we'll
Speaker 1: be you know, finalizing everything that's been agreed to on
Speaker 1: paper and then monitoring compliance going forward.
Speaker 4: And Messagreer, can you help us understand how you landed
Speaker 4: on some of these rates, Specifically a country like Switzerland.
Speaker 4: It went from thirty one percent on Liberation Day April
Speaker 4: second to now thirty nine percent, even though you and
Speaker 4: your colleagues were in negotiations with the Swiss trading partners.
Speaker 5: Sure.
Speaker 1: Well, So, first of all, the rates are largely determined
Speaker 1: by the trade deficit of a country with the United
Speaker 1: States and what the country's willing to do to address
Speaker 1: that trade deficit from Switzerland. You know this is surprising
Speaker 1: to some to hear, but we have nearly forty billion
Speaker 1: dollar trade deficit with Switzerland for a country of nine million. Now,
Speaker 1: we value our relationship with Switzerland, certainly, but during our
Speaker 1: discussions with them, you know, we weren't able to reach
Speaker 1: agreement on the best way to reduce that trade deficit
Speaker 1: at all. Right, they ship enormous amounts of pharmaceuticals to
Speaker 1: our country. We want to be making pharmaceuticals in our country,
Speaker 1: so this is a challenging situation, and so we have,
Speaker 1: you know, high tariffs, not just on Switzerland, but many
Speaker 1: countries where we weren't able to fully resolve a path
Speaker 1: forward on reducing the trade deficit and opening markets.
Speaker 4: My understanding was that the US in Switzerland actually had
Speaker 4: a negotiated text and it was just waiting on sign
Speaker 4: off from President Trump. Is that accurate.
Speaker 3: I think that's an overstatement.
Speaker 1: I mean that the reality is all of these countries,
Speaker 1: you trade back and forth paperwork and then you take
Speaker 1: it back to your leaders to get guidance from them,
Speaker 1: and so nothing's agreed and till everything's agreed, That's what
Speaker 1: every trade negotiator knows. So you know, the reality is,
Speaker 1: we negotiate with lots of countries. Listen, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of countries that didn't get the deal that we've
Speaker 1: been negotiating with, and they, of course, they all want
Speaker 1: a deal. They all want to deal with the United States.
Speaker 1: So I can understand that. You know, folks may want
Speaker 1: to try to manifest a deal in the last minutes,
Speaker 1: but we just have.
Speaker 3: To do it's right for America, and the President understands
Speaker 3: that too.
Speaker 4: I'm thinking of other countries like Taiwan which that rate
Speaker 4: went down, India, Switzerland. Of course, we know you were
Speaker 4: in negotiations with so between now and August seventh, could
Speaker 4: some of these countries that you spent a lot of
Speaker 4: time with your counterparts get a deal?
Speaker 1: Well, that's not my focus. I feel like we've been
Speaker 1: able to get everything set on August first. Of course,
Speaker 1: any country that wants to talk to us, they can
Speaker 1: always talk to us, and I'm sure some will be
Speaker 1: eager to find ways to reduce the deficit, open their markets, etc.
Speaker 1: But we're really focused right now on implementing the deals
Speaker 1: that have been reached.
Speaker 5: Well, on implementing those deals. Representative, you mentioned that you
Speaker 5: would be looking and monitoring them for any violations. How
Speaker 5: will this administration judge what is a violation and what
Speaker 5: the consequences of that would be.
Speaker 1: So, for example, you know, we put out a fairly
Speaker 1: detailed joint statement with Indonesia and we're finalizing the underlying agreement,
Speaker 1: and in there you can see that they've made commitments
Speaker 1: on terariff levels where they're can.
Speaker 3: Remove all of their tariffs.
Speaker 1: They've made commitments on non tariff barriers with respect to
Speaker 1: you know, agricultural inspections and the way they you know,
Speaker 1: treat certain digital trade and so our office, which has
Speaker 1: hundreds of people, the offs of the gust Trade representative,
Speaker 1: they watch this and they make sure that Indonesia actually
Speaker 1: does what it's supposed to do, and if they don't,
Speaker 1: the president has his terr of authority. I mean, all
Speaker 1: of the deals are premised and the modified rates for
Speaker 1: these countries are premised on them actually opening their market,
Speaker 1: making the investment and purchase commitments they've agreed to, and
Speaker 1: if you don't, you can have the tariffs go back
Speaker 1: into place.
Speaker 3: This is this is basic trade enforcement. That's what we
Speaker 3: intend to do here, Ambassador.
Speaker 2: Right now, there are a number of countries coming out
Speaker 2: and saying this is part of a negotiation and they
Speaker 2: plan to keep talking with the team over in the
Speaker 2: Trade Trade Organization and trade representatives from the United States.
Speaker 2: Is that just messaging to their own political constituents or
Speaker 2: is that reality?
Speaker 1: Well, well, listen, they certain they certainly have their domestic
Speaker 1: constituents they have to talk to. You can be sure
Speaker 1: that I woke up this morning to a number of
Speaker 1: trade ministers texting me and emailing me, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: they're reaching out to my colleague Secretary LATINX Secretary Vesson
Speaker 1: et Set And my job is to talk to these folks.
Speaker 1: I'm always going to talk to these folks, and you know,
Speaker 1: if they have proposals, you know, I'll talk to them
Speaker 1: and I'll.
Speaker 3: Brief the president.
Speaker 1: You know, we're focused on implementation and doing, you know,
Speaker 1: what's right to change the trading system to one that
Speaker 1: benefits American workers.
Speaker 2: How much are you also hearing from US companies concerned
Speaker 2: about certainty and whether they're going to get clarity on
Speaker 2: exactly what the rates are going to be, whether they
Speaker 2: will stick, whether there will be adjustments, and how some
Speaker 2: of these things will work with trans national shipments of
Speaker 2: getting penalized forty percent.
Speaker 1: So so with respect to certainty, you know, President Trump
Speaker 1: has been talking about a new tariff program.
Speaker 3: For for literally years, decades.
Speaker 1: In some instances, you know, he has tariffs from his
Speaker 1: first term that are still in place. So sometimes when
Speaker 1: companies say we want certainty, what they mean is we
Speaker 1: want a different outcome, right, and you know by by putting,
Speaker 1: you know, the market has baked in a lot of
Speaker 1: the tariffs we put in, you know, the new tariffs
Speaker 1: that we issued last night, are firm. That's why we
Speaker 1: put it out the very clear list. Everyone can see
Speaker 1: it and understand, which retract a transhipment that's always been illegal,
Speaker 1: and so we're just going to put an additional forty percent
Speaker 1: tariff on that. So you know, I understand that there
Speaker 1: are going to be ede cases where companies have to
Speaker 1: change their supply chains and no one wants to do that.
Speaker 1: They just want status quo. But we can't have the
Speaker 1: status quo. The status quo is what led to offshoring
Speaker 1: and the loss of some of our key industries. So
Speaker 1: during that supply chain shift, you know, that can be
Speaker 1: challenging for some companies. And I talk to a lot
Speaker 1: of these folks. I wanted to understand the presence trade policy.
Speaker 1: I want to hear about any unintended consequences. But the
Speaker 1: presence trade policy is moving forward and we're shifting from
Speaker 1: a seventy year policy based on purely efficiency to a
Speaker 1: new policy based on fair and balance trade.
Speaker 3: And the world is agreeing with US.
Speaker 4: Investor agree what about the unintended consequences of what's going
Speaker 4: on with the sectoral tariffs on autos? The Ford CEO
Speaker 4: was on Bloomberg Television yesterday talking about the price disadvantage
Speaker 4: compared to auto companies if they're making a car in
Speaker 4: Japan because of the input cost of twenty percent on
Speaker 4: those inputs that they need to make the car coming
Speaker 4: into the United States versus the fifteen percent right that
Speaker 4: Japan now has. What's the point of the auto sectoral
Speaker 4: tariff if basically it's going to be bilateral now with
Speaker 4: country by country.
Speaker 1: So first of all, you know, there are only a
Speaker 1: handful of countries that export cars to us, right essentially,
Speaker 1: you know, Germany, Japan, in a couple of countries of
Speaker 1: the European Union. We also have Canada, Mexico, and we
Speaker 1: had our domestic producers, you know, choose over a couple
Speaker 1: of decades to offsho a lot of that production to Mexico.
Speaker 1: And so naturally there is some some challenge as as
Speaker 1: they continue to reshore that. And we understand that, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, our goal is long term. We're not looking
Speaker 1: at quarterly earnings as policy makers. We're looking at a
Speaker 1: way to make sure that we have a strong, robust
Speaker 1: industrial base here that provide good jobs for our workers
Speaker 1: and support the national security. So you know, we're in
Speaker 1: constant contact with the domestics with the unions and everybody.
Speaker 1: And you know, I understand that the the auto companies
Speaker 1: are receiving a credit for content that's made in America,
Speaker 1: which is how it should be.
Speaker 3: That's what we're trying to incentivize.
Speaker 4: When you're looking and you're thinking long term, are you
Speaker 4: preparing for Supreme Court ruling against using AEPA for these tariffs?
Speaker 4: And if so, what's the plan be.
Speaker 1: So the case is at the Federal Circuit right now.
Speaker 1: We had the arguments yesterday, you know, lots of questions,
Speaker 1: a lot of preparation. Dog did a great doj did
Speaker 1: a great job. We had a great team out there.
Speaker 1: We feel very confident in the case. You know, if
Speaker 1: there's still questions coming out of the Federal Circuit or
Speaker 1: further litigation that goes to the Supreme Court, we're confident
Speaker 1: there that this statue clearly says the President has the
Speaker 1: authority to regulate imports. That's the language, you know, not
Speaker 1: my words, it's a statute statutes language. You know, in
Speaker 1: case there's a national emergency, the Presence declared a national emergency.
Speaker 1: So we feel confident. You know, if it goes the
Speaker 1: other way, then we'll manage that. The reality is the
Speaker 1: countries understand the type of leverage that President Trump has created.
Speaker 1: That's why they're doing these deals, and they're going to
Speaker 1: regardless of what happens in litigation.
Speaker 2: That's where I wanted to finish. And we just have
Speaker 2: a couple of minutes. We are out of time with you,
Speaker 2: I know, but I am curious what the game plan
Speaker 2: is should there be some sort of overruling of IEPA.
Speaker 2: Do you already have section two thirty two and others
Speaker 2: lined up?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 1: Well, listen, we always have all kinds of plans, and
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go deep into our strategy here,
Speaker 1: mostly because we're pretty confident on the current plan. But
Speaker 1: we will do whatever it takes to make sure that
Speaker 1: the President can continue to rectify the trade deficit and
Speaker 1: change the global trading system. And this is a historic thing.
Speaker 1: This is once in a hundred years that you have
Speaker 1: the chance to reorder global trade like this, and we're
Speaker 1: doing it, and we'll use whatever tools aren't necessary to
Speaker 1: do it.
Speaker 2: US Trade Representative Jamison Greer, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: being with us.