HomeAg NewsFree Trader Grassley Reserves Judgement on Trump’s Canada, Mexico Tariffs

Free Trader Grassley Reserves Judgement on Trump’s Canada, Mexico Tariffs

Story by Matt Kaye (Berns Bureau Washington); courtesy of NAFB News Service

(WASHINGTON D.C.) — President Donald Trump is threatening to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico on February 1st, but one GOP Senator is reserving judgment to see the impact with the two USMCA trade deal partners.

Longtime Senator and former Senate Finance Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is taking a ‘velvet glove’ approach on Trump’s tariff threat as the newly inaugurated president takes the reins of power for a second time. “Well, I’m a free trader,” says Grassley. “I voted for the USMCA. On the other hand, I think Trump has a new approach to tariffs to bring people to the table and get freer trade. I don’t know whether it’s going to work, but I’m not going to bad mouth Trump in the meantime.”

But Grassley says if Trump imposes 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico next month and they don’t work, he’ll address that, then.

Grassley says he tried, when Finance Chair with jurisdiction over trade, to restrict presidential tariff power, but couldn’t corral agreement from disparate factions on the panel. “I think Congress gave away too much – get that back under Article I power of the United States,” says Grassley. “I wasn’t successful, so I’m pessimistic that any attempt this time would be successful.”

President Trump didn’t impose the universal tariffs he proposed during his campaign, plus a 60-pecent duty on Chinese goods. Trump said President Biden largely left Trump’s first-term China tariffs in place, adding he may still invoke universal tariffs but isn’t ready to do so yet. The executive order Trump signed on trade on Monday directs the Commerce and Treasury secretaries and USTR to investigate U.S. trade deficits, among those, record Ag trade deficits, review existing trade deals for improvements, and look at how to build an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariffs.

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