U.S. Trade Rep.: We Aren't Instructed to Ensure Tariffs Don't Impact Affordability, It's About Re-Shoring, Wages, Jobs

On Friday’s broadcast of “Bloomberg Surveillance,” U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer stated that there isn’t a specific direction to ensure tariffs going forward don’t impact affordability and “Whenever we’re imposing tariffs or doing deals, the purpose of the trade program is to re-shore American manufacturing and protect American food security. It’s really about jobs and increasing wages” and stating there are other policies on prices, “So, we don’t see the trade policy really as driving prices, we see it as driving jobs.”

Greer said that prices for certain staples have fallen over the past month, and “When we saw inflation earlier, it’s really about housing, healthcare…I don’t think that food imports are really going to be an issue for us. The tariff program is really about creating jobs, and the president’s regulatory approach is really about bringing prices down and bringing affordability.”

Co-host Dani Burger then asked, “Ambassador, have you had any specific directives from the president, though, as you carry out your negotiations, to make sure any tariffs you put on from here or any ones that you negotiate, specifically, are not having an impact on affordability?”

Greer answered, “So, kind of the way you put it there, a specific direction, I would say no. Whenever we’re imposing tariffs or doing deals, the purpose of the trade program is to re-shore American manufacturing and protect American food security. It’s really about jobs and increasing wages, which we’ve seen over the past few months. When it comes to prices, the president is undertaking a lot of other actions, energy policy, tax policy, regulatory, gas prices are down, etc. So, we don’t see the trade policy really as driving prices, we see it as driving jobs.”

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