Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says that President Trump’s threat of auto tariffs against Mexico could jeopardize what the president hopes will be a signature achievement: a renegotiated free trade deal with Canada and Mexico.
“More tariffs would create more problems,” said Grassley, whose committee has primary jurisdiction over trade policy, when asked in his weekly press gaggle if Trump’s threat of additional tariffs over border crossings from Mexico threatened the revised version of NAFTA that Trump’s administration negotiated.
Grassley reiterated his call for Trump to lift tariffs on aluminum and steel from Canada and Mexico as legislatures in those countries consider their own ratification of the updated trade agreement, called the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement.
“[I]f the president think it’s a good agreement he ought to, before this day’s out, say to the Mexicans and Canadians the tariffs are off,” said Grassley, who has said he’s told Trump this directly but that the Iowa Republican’s advice has been rebuffed.
Grassley also responded to a statement from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that the U.S. and China have reached a preliminary agreement on enforcement rules for a trade deal.
“I feel very good, if that information is accurate,” Grassley said, though he voiced some skepticism. “There’s only one caveat I’d put on the statement: Mnuchin making the statement instead of [U.S. Trade Representative Robert] Lighthizer making the statement. Mnuchin’s a little softer on trade issues with China than Lighthizer is, but they’re a team, so maybe they’re on the same page.”
