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<!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15pt;" class="">INSIDE US TRADE</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b class=""><span style="font-size:32.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Senate
Finance Republicans confront Navarro on China, talk NAFTA and bilaterals<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri" class="">February 14, 2017<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Senate
Finance Committee Republicans and White House National Trade Council Director
Peter Navarro on Tuesday held initial but frank talks about China, whether to
negotiate more trade agreements or focus on existing deals, and other trade
issues during the first group meeting between administration officials and the
panel's GOP members.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Leaving
the Feb. 14 meeting on Capitol Hill, Republican Finance panel members described
the meeting as wide-ranging and generally the beginning of broader conversation
on trade policy with the Trump administration. Most members said they left the
meeting with something of a better idea of the Trump administration’s vision
for trade policy.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Committee
Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who invited Navarro and Jason Greenblatt, White
House special representative for international negotiations, to come before the
panel’s Republicans, told <i class="">Inside U.S. Trade</i> the meeting was “very good”
but also noted that “there were some tense moments because every state has
their own problems and some of our senators, if not all of them, raised their
problems. So it was a good interchange.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Several
members described the meeting as a back-and-forth, with the administration
seeking input rather than laying out an agenda.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">The
North American Free Trade Agreement also came up in discussions but
administration officials offered no concrete time line for renegotiation,
members said. President Trump’s representatives did, however, say that certain
aspects of the deal could be improved, and that the Finance meeting could get
the ball rolling on renegotiations, Hatch and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said after
the meeting.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Asked
whether the administration officials signaled they would begin the process of
reopening NAFTA soon, Hatch said “they really can’t until they establish this
90-day period,” and added “but this is part of that and that will get them
going.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Under
the Trade Promotion Authority law, the administration has to consult with the
Finance panel as well as the House Ways & Means Committee before it can
notify Congress at least 90 calendar days prior to initiating negotiations with
a country.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Thune,
asked whether he got the sense that the Trump team would wait until a U.S.
Trade Representative is in place before proceeding with NAFTA and other
bilateral talks, said “it kinda sounded like they're moving forward.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">At
the same time, Thune added, “they indicated that the USTR is going to be the
lead, as they always have been, trade diplomat or trade negotiator for the
U.S.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Sen.
Pat Toomey (R-PA) characterized the meeting as “the start of a long
conversation.” He told <i class="">Inside U.S. Trade</i> that he left the meeting with a
better idea of where the administration is headed on trade policy, but said he
still has “many, many unanswered questions.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">One
thing Navarro stressed was that multilateral trade agreements will not be
pursued by the Trump administration, senators said after the meeting --
something Trump made clear throughout his campaign and has maintained since
taking office. Trump on Jan. 23 withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership, and on Feb. 2 he announced that he wanted to speed up the process
of renegotiating NAFTA.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Hatch
has been holding out hope that TPP could be salvaged by kicking it off it as a
bilateral with Japan – something he said he told Navarro and Greenblatt during
the meeting. Asked about Navarro's response, Hatch said “he didn't ignore it. That's
what they intend to do.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">“They’ll
probably go straight to Japan; and once they have Japan other nations are going
to come on board, and then they’re going to have to do the same thing over in
Europe,” Hatch told<i class=""> Inside U.S. Trade</i>. “Everybody wants good trade, so
it’s a matter of just diving in and getting it done and we had a good
discussion about it, so I felt good about it.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Thune
added that the administration officials did not lay out a time line for
beginning bilateral negotiations with Japan, but said senators during the
meeting stressed that talks must begin soon.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">“I
think the message they got was ‘start now.’ And that was kind of delivered
loudly and clearly that we can't afford to wait because the longer we wait the
more likely it is that China or somebody else moves into the vacuum,” Thune
told <i class="">Inside U.S. Trade</i>, adding that “we've gotta get bilaterals going
right away” with Asia.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">He
also noted that Japan represents a large agricultural export market, as do
other TPP countries. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said Navarro told attendees that
the administration is “ready to move forward with some bilaterals.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Overall,
Thune said, the priorities laid out by the administration’s representatives in
the meeting “kind of synced up with the things we want to see happen.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">But
Navarro faced some pushback from members – especially from those with
substantial agriculture industries in their states – on his views on China.
Navarro has taken a hard line on China’s trade practices, accusing the country
of currency manipulation and of policies aimed at gutting U.S. manufacturing.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Sen.
Tim Scott (R-NC), who left the meeting at about its midway point, said members
who had significant agriculture industries in their states had a large number
of questions for Navarro on China due to the importance of the Chinese market
to agriculture exporters.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Thune
said members made clear that when trading partners retaliate against the U.S.,
agriculture often is singled out. He noted that he, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) – the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee
– stressed the importance of agricultural exports in the meeting with Navarro
and Greenblatt.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Thune
added that there were concerns expressed about “going backward” on NAFTA and
other trade agreements, and said the best way to ensure markets stay open for
exports is to negotiate new trade deals.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">In
that vein, Scott noted that the central debate while he was in the meeting was
over “whether or not we are suffering from bad trade agreements or are we
suffering from not having more trade agreements.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"" class="">Scott
added that there was a “short conversation” on currency manipulation before
Portman departed the meeting just before Scott. That conversation, Scott said,
did not delve into issues relating to border adjustments, the World Trade
Organization, or whether countervailing duties are an appropriate response to
currency manipulation. -- <i class="">Jack Caporal </i>(<a href="mailto:jcaporal@iwpnews.com" class=""><span style="color:#0B4CB4" class="">jcaporal@iwpnews.com</span></a>)
and<i class=""> Jenny Leonard</i> (<a href="mailto:jleonard@iwpnews.com" class=""><span style="color:#0B4CB4" class="">jleonard@iwpnews.com</span></a>)<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p>
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