Wyden Opposes the Nomination of Greer to be USTR Ahead of Floor Vote
As Prepared for Delivery
I rise in opposition to the nomination of Jamieson Greer to serve as United States Trade Representative.
If confirmed, Mr. Greer would be the top official on one of Donald Trump’s signature issues - trade and tariffs. Trump was elected president largely on the promise of lowering prices for American families and remaking the global economy to America’s benefit.
Six weeks into his presidency, no progress has been made on either front. Instead, Trump has shown he is willing to impose staggering costs on American families, workers and businesses in order to settle scores on issues that have nothing to do with trade or the economy. Trump gets headlines, Trump’s rich friends will get tax breaks, and American families get stuck with higher prices and bigger bills.
Although I respect Mr. Greer, I will oppose his nomination. First, Mr. Greer will be a rubber stamp for the Trump Tax, the knee-jerk decision to slap tariffs on nearly everything Americans buy and make high prices even higher. Second, Mr. Greer has embraced Trump’s chaos strategy, which is a slap in the face to farmers, manufacturers and communities across the country who are sounding the alarm about how Trump’s is already costing them sales overseas and jobs here at home. And, finally, our country needs a U.S. Trade Representative who will be the point person on trade for this administration, and I have no confidence based on his confirmation hearing that Mr. Greer will be that person.
Let’s start on the first point. Trump’s across-the-board tariffs are going to cost Americans big-time. Up to $2,600 a year according to one estimate. They could destroy 344,000 American jobs.
Trump has already ordered tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. The China tariffs went into effect last month. Trump is promising that 25 percent tariffs on everything Americans buy from Mexico and Canada will go into effect next week. Get ready for gas prices to go up, power prices to spike, auto supply chains to be thrown out of whack and fresh fruit and vegetables to get more expensive.
But wait, there’s more. Trump has promised new tariffs on steel and aluminum, which go into everything from soda cans to cars. Yesterday he proposed tariffs on copper, which is used in everything from housing to medical devices and cars and largely comes from Chile and Canada. And he’s pushing something called reciprocal tariffs on … maybe … everything?
The only thing we can be sure about is Trump’s tariffs will hit working Americans the hardest. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their billionaire buddies will barely notice the price increases. And if you ask people at a Fred Meyer in Gresham, Oregon, or buying groceries in Charlotte or Kalamazoo, they don’t need an economist to know Trump hasn’t helped prices at all. Less than a third of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing on inflation, according to a poll released this week. Consumer sentiment fell by 10 percent this month, and more and more Americans are rightly afraid that tariffs will drive more inflation.
If Trump’s trade war continues, there’s no doubt many U.S. workers, farmers, and ranchers will lose their jobs when our trading partners retaliate and slap tariffs on made-in-the-USA products. That’s exactly what happened the last time Trump was in office— American producers of everything from rice, to bourbon, to motorcycles got hammered. They sold less overseas, made less money and workers ended up paying the price. There is a right way to do tariffs that punishes bad actors like China, and targets the products that will change other countries’ behavior while minimizing the cost to American families. Donald Trump is doing the opposite – he’s maximizing price spikes for regular Americans with no plan or strategy.
That brings me to the second point, how Trump’s chaos mode on trade - which Mr. Greer has fully endorsed - is already hurting farmers and small businesses.
I’ve held four town halls in Oregon this year and talked with a lot of small businesses and farmers across my state. I’m hearing one message over and over again - they are already losing sales and losing markets to Trump’s bluster. Last year our state exported $34 billion in blueberries, hazelnuts and other goods overseas - almost an all-time high. Now, instead of building on that success, our producers and innovators are preparing for the worst. The same story comes up again and again. The Washington Post quoted an Iowa farmer who has seen prices of seeds, fertilizer and equipment increase, while prices for soybeans are flat. “Our goal is to make Iowa and U.S. soybean farms profitable,” the farmer said. “And to do that, we need these international markets. We need to keep growing demand.” The state economist in Georgia said this month that the greatest threat to the state’s economy - I'll repeat that, the greatest single threat to the economy - is Trump’s trade threats. Tariffs mean higher prices for consumers, while trade wars mean other countries buy less of the things Georgia makes, including aerospace components, pulp and paper, machinery, and auto parts. Pittsburgh-based aluminum manufacturer Alcoa said Trump’s tariffs will cost 100,000 jobs in the U.S., and won’t lead to more production here. “This is bad for the aluminum industry in the U.S. It’s bad for American workers,” Alcoa’s CEO said, according to Reuters. There are similar reports of communities fearing the worst in Wisconsin, North Carolina and all across America.
I’ll close with the final reason I am opposing Mr. Greer’s nomination - it is not clear to me that he will be the final voice in the room with Trump on trade. There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen on that front - Peter Navarro, Treasury Secretary Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Lutnick all have claimed responsibility for trade. It reminds me of an old saying that gets attributed to John Madden - “If you have two quarterbacks, you have none.” Well, if you have four chief trade officials, you have none.
Unfortunately, Mr. Greer did little in his confirmation process to build confidence that the buck will stop him on trade. He has said it’s not a trade matter when Donald Trump uses tariffs to settle scores about the border, immigration, and diplomatic issues, so those decisions aren’t something he would expect to be involved with if confirmed. If the U.S. Trade Representative isn’t going to be in the room when tariff decisions are at stake, it’s not clear to me what influence over critical trade decisions Mr. Greer will have in Trump’s administration.
Americans need a trade policy that puts families and workers first, and a chief trade official who has the authority to deliver results. Unfortunately, neither of those is on offer today.
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