Trump's trade chief will defend tariffs as a ‘drastic, overdue change’

President Donald Trump’s chief trade negotiator, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, will be on the congressional hot seat over the next two days as he defends Trump’s controversial decision to impose "reciprocal" tariffs on nearly every country in the world.

The 44-year-old trade lawyer plans to tell Congress that Trump's tariff “strategy is already bearing fruit,” according to testimony prepared for Greer's Tuesday appearance at the Senate Finance Committee, which was obtained by POLITICO. “Nearly 50 countries have approached me to discuss the president's new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity. Several of these countries, such as Argentina, Vietnam and Israel, have suggested they will reduce their tariffs and non-tariff barriers.”

“These obviously are welcome moves,” Greer continues, while also citing recent auto industry plans to employ more American workers “Our large and persistent trade deficit has been over 30 years in the making, and it will not be resolved overnight, but all of this is in the right direction.”

The annual congressional hearings on the president's trade agenda — Greer will appear before the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday — are attracting increased attention this year following Trump's decision last week to impose a baseline tariff of 10 percent on nearly all imports and tariffs ranging up to 50 percent on 60 trading partners that have the biggest trade surpluses with the U.S., which the Trump administration argues is a sign of unfair trade relations.

Those actions have triggered a major financial market selloff and increased the risk of a recession, due to increased costs of imports and lost export sales as countries, such as China, retaliate against American goods. In addition, Trump and members of his administration have sent mixed signals about whether the tariffs are here to stay or can be negotiated away in exchange for other countries reducing their own barriers.

Greer will face off Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee, where ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have been fiercely critical of Trump’s tariff actions and his handling of the economy.

“In the last week, the White House has been all over the map when it comes to these tariffs,” Wyden will say in his opening statement on Tuesday, according to excerpts obtained in advance. “There is no clear message about how they were determined, what they’re supposed to accomplish, how long they will be in place, whether they’re a negotiating tool or a move to try and cut the United States off from global trade and usher in a new era of 1870s-style protectionism."

Another committee member, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has decried Trump’s tariff moves as “illegal and another step toward authoritarianism” by usurping tax and trade authority that belongs to Congress.

On the Republican side of the panel, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has crafted legislation with Cantwell to rein in Trump’s tariff power. Other farm state committee members, such as Senate Majority LeaderJohn Thune (R-S.D.), also are worried about foreign retaliation that could damage U.S. agriculture exports.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said in an interview on Captiol Hill Monday evening that businesses in his home state want "to be able to know what to expect" on trade policy, something he plans to press Greer on at the hearing. Lankford also said he’ll “absolutely” encourage Greer to pursue negotiations. “The faster we can get some negotiations done and resolved, the better.”

Over in the House, where Greer will testify Wednesday, Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) has applauded Trump’s tariff action, unlike Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who has been generally silent about it. But even Smith has expressed hope that many of the tariffs “will be reduced over time” as the result of new trade deals struck by the Trump administration.

Greer, like others in the administration, has put a positive spin on the tariffs, which he says are aimed at raising revenue, boosting U.S. manufacturing and eliminating the $1.2 trillion U.S. trade deficit.

He also has combined a central tenet of Christianity with Trump’s MAGA vision to explain their larger goal. “We want to have the ‘Golden Rule for the Golden Age’ and treat others as we're treated,” Greer said last week in an interview on Fox Business Network.

Greer, in his prepared remarks, defends Trump's action, which he describes as “the most significant change in U.S. trade policy since we allowed China to joined the World Trade Organization” in 2001. He blamed that “disastrous decision” and others like it for the loss of 5 million manufacturing jobs and 90,000 factories since 1994, although advances in technology and increased mechanization are also responsible for some of the job losses.

He also outlines a vision of where Trump wants to lead the economy, despite warnings that higher tariffs will increase prices for consumers and make American companies less competitive in international market as well as strain relations with the rest of the world.

“We must move away from an economy based solely on the financial sector and government spending and we must become an economy based on producing real goods and services,” Greer says. “This adjustment may be challenging at times. It is a moment of drastic, overdue change, but I am confident the American people will rise to the occasion as they have done before.”

Greer has been privately briefing Republicans on the Hill over the past few weeks, as he attempts to assuage concerns from free-market supporting members who are uneasy about what a trade-war could mean to the economy in their home states.

During the first Trump administration, Greer served as chief of staff to then-U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a brash litigator whose expertise and connections on Capitol Hill helped the novice president achieve many of his trade objectives.

Greer does not yet have the stature Lighthizer enjoyed in the administration, but like his predecessor, he has fully embraced the president’s view that the current trading system is badly tilted against the United States.

“We've had a world trading system for the past 70 years that may have been fit for purpose at the time, but very clearly, at least over the past decade or two, we've seen it failing the United States,” Greer told Fox Business Network. “We've seen China becoming the net winner of the trading system. And when that's the result of the trading system, you know you need to change the system. And President Trump, he understands that, and for him, it's an emergency.”

But the Trump administration's newest tariffs target not just China but also long-time allies like Japan, South Korea and the 27-nation European Union. That has raised concern that Trump’s new unilateral tariffs risk fraying relations with the countries whose help the United States needs on other global challenges.

“Trust is easily lost and hard to build,” said Doug Irwin, a trade historian and professor of economics at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. “Other countries are going to find it increasingly hard to cooperate with us on a whole host of issues just because the trade relationship has deteriorated.”

But in a podcast interview last year, Greer argued countries are able to compartmentalize such disputes.

“When you look at history, some of our largest trade disputes have been with some of our strongest allies,” he said on the podcast, which was hosted by Newton Investment Management, a financial advisory firm.

“We had trade disputes with Japan through the '80s into early '90s. “We've had a number of trade disputes with Korea. Obviously, we often have disputes with Europe, both inside and outside the [World Trade Organization]. But that hasn't stopped our ability to work with them on national security issues.”

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.