WASHINGTON: US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has defended President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff strategy, saying it has strengthened the United States' negotiating position with trading partners, including India, and helped advance the administration's broader effort to revive American manufacturing.
In an interview published by The New York Times, Greer said the administration's trade policy was producing results despite legal challenges and criticism from economists and businesses over its impact on prices and global trade.
"They are. Yeah. I think we've been wildly successful," Greer said when asked whether the tariff policy was working. "Whenever you're trying to change policy in a big way and you're upending special interests or corporate interests, people are going to come back and try to fight that. They want the status quo. We don't want the status quo."
Greer said the administration acted quickly because it viewed America's widening trade deficit as an economic emergency that required decisive action. He argued that broad tariffs had enabled Washington to negotiate new trade arrangements with several partners.
According to The New York Times, Greer said the administration's approach had helped the United States negotiate trade deals with the United Kingdom, the European Union, Indonesia, India and Japan.
The US trade chief acknowledged that the Supreme Court had struck down a significant portion of the administration's tariff programme but insisted he had no regrets about the strategy.
"We're always going to get sued," Greer said. "There's always going to be people who are trying to make a buck on the back of the American worker, and they're always going to want to sue to maintain their business model."
He said the administration was already pursuing alternative legal authorities to preserve its trade agenda and remained committed to fundamentally changing decades of US trade policy.
"At the end of the day, we are winning in changing the trade policy. We're winning in getting the trade deficit down. We're winning in reshoring. We're winning in wages. We're winning on all these things. So I'm happy with where we are and where we're going," Greer said.
"We're not really about going out and changing the world. We're trying to change the terms of trade," he said. "It does mean, to the extent we have to take measures in other countries, we will. But it's less that we're anti any particular country and more we're just pro-America."
Rejecting criticism that tariffs had become politically unsustainable, Greer argued that the policy should be judged over the long term.
"The trade policy is really about wages and protecting manufacturing and agricultural production. And I think that the American people are going to see this over time," he said.
Greer maintained that rebuilding manufacturing capacity would take time but said the administration was already seeing signs of increased factory investment, higher manufacturing wages and improving industrial productivity.
