US trade chief says no countries have said they will withdraw from tariff deals

By Andrea Shalal, Tatiana Bautzer and Marianna Parraga

WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) – U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday said none of the countries that had reached trade deals with the U.S. had indicated plans to withdraw following Friday’s Supreme Court decision striking down a large swath of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Greer told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program that he had already spoken with his counterpart from the European Union and would be speaking with officials from other countries.

“I haven’t heard anyone yet come to me and say the deal is off,” Greer said in the first of several media interviews about the Supreme Court ruling. “They want to see how this plays out.”

Trump on Friday imposed a 10% temporary tariff after the Supreme Court struck down his previous tariff program, which was based on an economic emergency law. On Saturday he lifted that level to 15% – the maximum allowed by the law.

Greer told CBS the president’s decision to hike the temporary tariff rate after less than 24 hours reflected the “urgency of the situation” and the need to reduce what he called huge trade imbalances with other countries.

Speaking on ABC News’ “This Week” program, Greer said the Trump administration would reconstruct its trade policy using other legal tools, including the Section 301 unfair practices statute and the Section 232 statute, both of which have withstood legal challenges. 

He told ABC that the USTR already had open investigations into Brazil and China, and expected to initiate investigations into areas such as industrial excess capacity, which would cover many countries in Asia, and unfair trading practices regarding rice, which is heavily subsidized by some countries.

Greer said he did not expect the ruling and subsequent change in tariffs to affect Trump’s planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of March.

“The purpose of this meeting with President Xi is not to fight about trade. It’s to maintain stability, make sure that the Chinese are holding up their end of our deal and buying American agricultural products and Boeings and other things,” Greer said. “I don’t see this really affecting that meeting.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a separate interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” program, said the issue of tariff refunds would be addressed by the lower courts.

“We will follow what they decide, but it can take weeks or months until we hear from them”, he said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal And Jasper Ward, editing by Michelle Nichols and Chizu Nomiyama )