Senators Decry 'Serious Flaws' in Execution of Trump Trade Policy -- Update
June 20 2018 - 7:59PM
Dow Jones News
By Jacob M. Schlesinger
WASHINGTON -- Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday
criticized the Trump administration's attempts to implement its new
"America First" trade policy, saying they have been flooded with
complaints by small business constituents confused by the system
used for implementing new tariffs on imports.
"The process has had, in my opinion, many serious flaws, and
problems continue to surface," Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch told
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross at the opening of a Senate Finance
Committee hearing called to scrutinize the way the administration
has carried out the series of tariffs it began implementing earlier
this year.
"American small businesses believe they are being held hostage
in a bureaucratic twilight zone waiting to see if they will
escape," Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said. "Every single
member of this committee is hearing from small business...Every
week it seems to me there is more and more bedlam."
Many lawmakers have raised concerns over the past few weeks
about the potential fallout from the administration's attempts to
wrest concessions from trading partners by imposing tariffs on a
wide range of goods, warning of higher import prices and exports
lost because of retaliation by other countries.
But Wednesday's hearing shone a light on a separate, emerging
complaint: confusion about the process for carrying out the tariffs
that have been announced, and the uncertainty that has cast over
affected companies.
The bulk of the complaints focused on tariffs that President
Donald Trump imposed recently on imports of steel and aluminum,
arguing that the moves were necessary for national security, by
ensuring a certain level of domestic production of the metals. The
policy included a process for steel and aluminum users to petition
for exclusions from those tariffs if they could show the specialty
products they use weren't available from domestic suppliers. It is
that process -- run by Mr. Ross's Commerce Department -- that has
drawn widespread business and political grumbling.
In his testimony, Mr. Ross played down the problems, asserting
that "we're making very good progress" in handling the requests
given "the magnitude of the chore."
Still, Mr. Ross provided to the committee data indicating his
agency is struggling to keep up with volume of petitions seeking
relief. He said the department had received more than 20,000
requests for exclusions since the tariffs were first announced in
March, and has so far posted just 9,000 for public comment and
review. Of those, he announced Wednesday that only 98 have so far
received a final ruling from Commerce officials -- 42 have been
granted exclusions from the tariffs, while 56 have been
rejected.
And in a nod to the complaints, Mr. Ross also said that Commerce
had made "progress in reforming and improving the process" and
would be "accelerating the processing of exclusions." But he said
that once officials do manage to review the stacks of requests, he
expects most will be rejected: "there is a high probability that
relatively few of those will be granted -- many have no
substance...and have well-grounded objections posted against
them."
The irritation was evident in the House as well. Texas
Republican Rep. Kevin Brady, who chairs the Ways and Means
Committee which oversees trade policy, told reporters Wednesday
afternoon, he was also "terribly frustrated" by the Commerce
Department's process. He said that the 42 approvals announced by
Mr. Ross "is such a small fraction of the legitimate
applications....The Commerce Department process has to improve
dramatically and immediately."
On the Senate side, some committee members turned the hearing
into a chance to plead a special case on behalf of specific
constituents. Kansas Republican Pat Roberts said a small
agriculture-equipment maker in his state was dependent on steel
from Canada and couldn't find the same materials in the U.S. "It's
a very cumbersome and slow exclusion process," Mr. Roberts said. He
asked Mr. Ross to call the owner personally, saying "If you could
move him to the top of the list, that would be great."
"I promise you, I'll call him no later than tomorrow morning,"
Mr. Ross said.
That exchange later drew a rebuke from Missouri Democratic Sen.
Claire McCaskill, who said "there's something very wrong with
people on this committee being able to jump the line, to have you
call someone in Kansas."
"It sounds to me like we've got a government-run mercantilist
economy, as opposed to a free-market economy," Iowa Republican Sen.
Chuck Grassley said after hearing Mr. Ross describe the process of
sifting through all the requests.
Richard Rubin contributed to this article.
Write to Jacob M. Schlesinger at jacob.schlesinger@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 20, 2018 19:44 ET (23:44 GMT)
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