Grassley Says He Doesn't Think There Will Ever Be 25% Tariffs on Autos
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he doesn't think the Trump administration will ever levy an additional 25% tax on imported autos, even as President Donald Trump continues to mention that threat in an effort to get European negotiators to open up to American agriculture exports. Grassley, who was responding to a reporter's question on how to get the European Union to bend during a conference call Feb. 18, said he doesn't think the EU will negotiate much on ag.
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He said it's not realistic to think “that we're actually going to put tariffs on automobiles coming out of Europe. I know the president's been talking about that for two years.” He said, as he has many times, that the fact that the administration is not complying with Congress's instructions to release its report on the security threat from auto imports is a sign that the report is of embarrassingly bad quality.
But, he acknowledged, even though he's in the same party as the president and leads the trade-governing Finance Committee, he could be out of the loop. “I don't expect we're going to have tariffs on automobiles. Maybe tomorrow the president will put them on, and you'll say, I didn't know what I was talking about.”
Grassley also talked about the possibility of a small trade agreement with India. He said he presumes it's been agreed to, and will be made public when the president travels to India next week. He said he thinks withdrawing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits was enough to move India to make some progress on how it treats American imports of medical devices and “some agricultural products.” Regarding GSP, he said, “That will probably be restored.”
However, a report in the Indian press seized on the fact that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer did not travel to India ahead of the president, as was expected, and said it was unclear if there would be a deal in time for the visit.