US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer Talks US Trade Policy

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**David Gura** (0:07)
I'm here with Ambassador Jamieson Greer here on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum. Great to have you with us. And you were just on a panel and you said you have an aversion to making news. I'm going to try nonetheless. I think there are a lot of folks wondering about Brazil in particular, seen as this test case for the Section 301 tariffs.
Statutory deadline is today. Anything that you can say about the process and where it stands and what we can expect.

**Jamieson Greer** (0:27)
Yeah, it's today. So our Section 301 investigations, they are legal investigations. We have two sets of hearings, we do two sets of public comments, and we're focused on unfair trading practices by Brazil. So we have to have a legal basis to do this. And there are all kinds of things that Brazil has been doing. They've been censoring our digital tech companies.
They've been restricting our access for ethanol to their market.
They've been actually engaging in illegal deforestation in the Amazon, which gives them a leg up on all the ag where they displace our ag exports to third countries. So there are a lot of things like this that have been a problem for a long time with Brazil. So we've been investigating this. Today, we'll announce our final action. I had a conversation, a video conversation, with my counterpart in Brazil last night. Very cordial. We've had intensive negotiations with them. I think there's still a lot of gaps between us, so we probably have to have some kind of action, but then continue discussions, I think.

**David Gura** (1:20)
Expectation 25% in line with what you're thinking in terms of the range?

**Jamieson Greer** (1:24)
Well, this is what was proposed by my office at the president's direction, so this is probably what we're looking at. Again, I don't want to get ahead of the president.
He's signing something today. I just got off the phone with him, and so we'll have more details to come. But again, I just want to emphasize, these are unfair trading practices that Brazil has had in place against American exporters and workers for many years. The president is trying to resolve these, and we're doing it by negotiation, where we need to use leverage of tariffs. That's what we're allowed to do with Section 301 We'll do that where it's necessary.

**David Gura** (1:58)
I'll ask you about Vietnam as well. I understand representatives of Vietnam have been in Washington meeting with your staff. Any update that you can give us on the status of those negotiations?

**Jamieson Greer** (2:06)
Yes. So we have Vietnamese officials in Washington this week negotiating. With all of the trade deals we've done over the past year and a half, all of them have had some core issues. Obviously, tariffs, we want other countries to take down their tariffs. Non-tariff barriers where they restrict US exports of goods and services. Also, things like economic security, where if we're going to be shipping them some of our high-tech equipment, they need to align with us on export controls and other things. So this is something we expect from the Vietnamese. Then there are things like just basic standards of intellectual property and other things. The rules that our companies abide by, we want them to do so as well. So I have a separate investigation with Vietnam involving intellectual property because they've been a bad actor in this space. So these are the types of things, intellectual property, economic security, where we still have open areas of discussion.

**David Gura** (2:55)
Switzerland's top trade diplomat told Bloomberg there's a good chance they'll get to a 15% deal, something stable. Can you confirm that, that negotiations with Switzerland are going well?

**Jamieson Greer** (3:03)
Well, I know that that's what they want. I know that is the substance of a framework agreement we agreed to a few months ago.
One interesting thing with Switzerland, we've been very concerned with our trade deficit with Switzerland, but over the past six to seven months, the United States is now in surplus with Switzerland in goods, so that's a really positive development. The Swiss are investing here in America. In fact, this week, I'm going to visit a plant in Utah where they are producing railway equipment. It's a Swiss company, they're coming here, they're bringing their apprenticeship program, so the Swiss are doing a lot of the things they need to do to get right with the US. Negotiations are still ongoing, so I can't guarantee anything, but there's positive direction there.

**David Gura** (3:41)
I'm asking about this sanctions bill, newly elevated after the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. Senator Richard Blumenthal said you've been involved in conversations about that. Is it in a place now that the White House, that you and the White House are happy with?