La Jornada: Washington plans to maintain tariffs on T-MEC countries

The United States Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, assured that President Donald Trump is concerned about the trade deficit with Mexico, which is why he will maintain the tariffs imposed on both the country and Canada.

“We are going to apply tariffs as long as we have a gigantic trade deficit,” Greer said at a forum. “The reality is that we have spent the last year and a half visiting countries to tell them that we have to apply some level of tariff,” he added.

The trade representative also highlighted that he is negotiating bilaterally with Mexico the treaty currently maintained by the three North American countries (T-MEC), and the reviews established for the trade pact begin this Wednesday in the Mexican capital.

Despite this being a tripartite trade agreement between the three North American countries, Greer explained that he will speak separately with Canada, a country with which, he asserted, he has important trade disagreements.

He pointed out that within the negotiations on the T-MEC they will propose changes in the rules of origin to improve regional content.

Will consult on exempt Chinese products

On the other hand, Greer stated that Donald Trump’s government will seek public opinion on which Chinese products should be eligible for lower tariffs.

Washington and Beijing agreed to create a joint trade board to initially determine about $30 billion in non-strategic products on which both countries can reduce or eliminate tariffs.

Asked at the forum what the United States had gotten out of the summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing, beyond the sale of 200 Boeing airplanes and $17 billion in agricultural purchases, Greer responded: “I can keep the tariffs on China, which is pretty impressive.”

He added that US tariffs on Chinese goods will probably always be higher than those applied to other countries.