Trump's trade representative says tariffs 'bearing fruit'

The top US trade official on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on nearly every other nation, telling US senators almost 50 countries had reached out to make a deal.

Jamieson Greer's appearance in Congress came with Republicans ringing alarm bells over Trump's escalating trade war and Wall Street clamouring for clarity on the president's plans after a historic market sell-off.

The US trade representative argued that the strategy was "already bearing fruit."

"Nearly 50 countries have approached me personally to discuss the president's new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity," he told the Senate Finance Committee.

Several countries – including Argentina, Vietnam and Israel – had offered to reduce their tariffs, Greer said, while auto manufacturers were cancelling lay-offs and companies had announced US$4 trillion in new investment in the United States.

The annual hearings on the president's trade policies are often staid affairs.

But they have generated more interest this year after Trump last week announced a baseline tariff of 10 percent and extra levies of up to 50 percent on dozens of countries exporting more to the United States than they buy.

Greer told senators the country had shed five million manufacturing jobs and 90,000 factories in the last 30 years, since a trilateral free-trade agreement with Mexico and Canada was enacted.

The United States of America's "large and persistent trade deficit" will not be resolved overnight, he cautioned.

"But all of this is in the right direction," he told senators.

"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 added.

Senior Republican lawmakers have pledged to allow Trump time to see how his tariff gambit plays out, but are desperate to see progress on trade negotiations they believe will calm markets.

Trump himself ruled out any pause in his aggressive new global trade policy on Monday, and threatened to slap an additional 50 percent tariff on China over its retaliation.

He also dismissed the possibility of a trade deal with the European Union and called his critics on trade "weak and stupid" while pledging to veto Grassley's bill, which is backed by at least seven Republicans.

Democrats were expected to press Greer on the impact of tariffs on prices and the broader economy.

The party's top senator on the finance committee, Ron Wyden, assailed the White House for having "no clear message" about how Trump picked his tariff targets and how long he plans to keep them up.

He suggested Trump was deliberately tanking the economy to bring down interest rates, making borrowing cheaper for the rich.

Greer's appearance was the first of two annual hearings on the president's trade policies. He will be grilled by the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.

– TIMES/AFP