Grassley Agrees With USTR That Exclusions for List 3 of Section 301 Unnecessary
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that since tariffs on the largest, third tranche of Chinese products are at 10 percent, an exclusion process isn't necessary. He said he agrees with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's position that unless that tariff goes up to 25 percent, there won't be exclusions offered.
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Grassley, who was talking with reporters March 12, also talked about the need to resolve Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel to get the new NAFTA through Congress, as well as through Mexican and Canadian legislatures. "We ... have to get rid of these tariffs for steel and aluminum, they're standing in the way," he said. "I'm going to be trying to communicate to the executive branch that problem, and maybe some ways of solving that."
Grassley said he hasn't sat down with Democrats yet to find out what they need on enforcement, labor and the environment in order to move the NAFTA rewrite forward, but he intends to do so. He reiterated his position that whatever changes are made to satisfy Democrats have to be in side letters or implementation, not through re-opening the text. "We can't renegotiate the treaty," he said, and even if Congress proposed it be renegotiated, he said, the other countries wouldn't agree.
Grassley said he has no update on how his Section 232 reform bill (see 1902130049) is shaping up, as "the substance is evolving." He added, "we are going to curb to some extent -- and I can't define 'to some extent' -- the president's ability to use [Section] 232." He said again he is trying to work out a compromise between the Sen. Pat Toomey proposal -- which would require Congressional approval before any tariffs are raised -- and the Sen. Rob Portman proposal -- which would give Congress the ability to disapprove of tariffs after they're announced. The latter would likely need veto-proof majorities to stop an executive intent on raising the tariffs.
Grassley said the bill itself is likely to be vetoed, though he added, "perhaps I shouldn't draw that conclusion yet ... . The broader support we can get towards two-thirds of the Senate of the United States, the greater chance there is of the president not vetoing it."