US trade rep says Trump tariffs are getting results, but things may be “challenging” for awhile

WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation’s top trade representative said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs are already getting results, bringing other countries to the negotiating table to discuss reducing their trade barriers.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer addressed the Senate Finance Committee a day after global markets swung wildly and some business leaders lambasted the president’s aggressive bid to raise tariffs on almost every nation on earth.

Greer testified that "about 50” countries have sought talks to escape Trump’s import tariffs. He said, for example, that Vietnam is cutting its own tariffs on apples, almonds and cherries. The import taxes are designed to reduce America’s massive trade deficits, but Greer conceded that the adjustment might "be challenging at times.”

Congress is getting jittery about Trump’s trade wars, especially since stocks collapsed after he announced broad tariffs last Wednesday. The market rebounded Tuesday on hopes that negotiations will convince the president to lower or suspend the tariffs, the biggest of which are set to take effect at midnight Wednesday.

The Constitution gives Congress authority to set taxes, including tariffs. But lawmakers have gradually ceded that authority to the White House.

Trump has been especially aggressive about using the powers of the presidency to impose his trade agenda. He claimed emergency authority to impose his massive tariffs last Wednesday. He earlier used the same powers to hit Chinese, Canadian and Mexican imports.

Trump also has bypassed Congress to tax steel, aluminum and auto imports on the grounds that they pose a national security threat to the United States.

Now lawmakers - including some Republicans - are suggesting that Congress needs to reassert its authority over trade.

"Donald Trump's aimless, chaotic tariff spree has proven beyond a doubt that Congress has given far too much of its constitutional power over international trade to the executive branch," said Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, top Democrat on the finance committee. “It is time to take that power back.”

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democrat Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington last week introduced legislation that would require presidents to justify new tariffs to Congress. Lawmakers would then have 60 days to approve the tariffs. Otherwise, they would expire.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune showed no sign that he would allow a vote on a bipartisan bill that would exert congressional oversight of Trump's tariffs.

"I don't think that has a future," Thune said of a bill from Grassley and Cantwell.

Republican Rep. Dan Bacon of Nebraska is planning to introduce similar legislation in the House.

On the CBS program Face the Nation Sunday, Bacon said that if stocks continue to fall or Trump’s tariffs hurt the economy, the legislation "becomes a very viable … it's time that Congress restores its authorities here.” Giving up tariff power to the president, "I think in hindsight, that was a mistake.”