Ron Wyden Grills Trump Nominee On How Admin Will Give 'Relief' To Small Businesses Hurt By Tariffs

4 days ago

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) questioned nominee for Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, William Kimmit, about the Trump Administration's plan to provide relief for small businesses affected by tariffs.

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Transcript

00:00More trade chaos this morning, Mr. Kimmett. We've been looking at the financial

00:05indexes this morning and it looks like the only one that is really up is

00:10volatility. And this lack of certainty and predictability is taking an enormous

00:17toll on our country and on the economic situation. I think you heard me say if

00:23you were to go back a couple of months, nobody would have thought that having

00:28125% tariff on imports from China, 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico, a 10% global

00:36tariff, and additional tariffs on aluminum, steel, and cars was somehow a

00:40good start in terms of trade policies. So what I would like to ask you to start

00:46with is what's the plan to provide relief now for the small businesses who have to

00:53decide between paying tariffs and keeping staff? Because that's what's going on

00:57right now. And they want to know what's being done to get them some relief now.

01:01And certainly there was a lot of fanfare yesterday, but I told you how markets

01:07responded this morning. I looked at the charts and there's just a sea of red

01:10everywhere. So what's the plan to provide relief to all these people hurting?

01:15Thank you for the question, ranking member Wyden. I think it's important to

01:20understand where we were as a country when President Trump took office and we

01:25were faced with an unprecedented $1.2 trillion trade-offs.

01:29Respectfully, my time is short and what I'd like to do is get an answer to the

01:34question of what's being done to provide relief to people hurting now.

01:40Thank you. And respectfully, I think the relief is already on its way. If you look

01:46this morning, inflation was down, consumer price index was down, prices are coming down.

01:50I just told you what the charts look like and it's red ink everywhere.

01:54I'm saying that's not the case? What I looked at is not representative of what's

02:00going on? I certainly am aware there's been some volatility in the markets. I just

02:04don't think that's a fair metric by which to judge the the president's trade agenda.

02:08Let's look at the others. The 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico, 10% global

02:14tariffs, additional tariffs on aluminum, steel, and cars. Are those a good thing to

02:19talk to the American people about? Because all I hear is that's generating

02:23more uncertainty, lack of predictability, and now for the next 90 days you got all

02:30these people basically hanging out there in a state of suspended animation when

02:34they want certainty and predictability, one and two, and relief now. So tell me how

02:40you're going to do that. Thank you, Ranking Member Wyden. I think the

02:43president has been clear that if you build in the United States there are no

02:48tariffs and if you source in the United States and so I think if you look at the

02:54issues that were taken we as a country have been the victims of non-reciprocal

02:59trade balances for decades and the president has taken strong and decisive

03:04action to address those issues and as I said that the inflation was announced this

03:09morning is down prices are down and I think it's too early to judge the

03:13effects of the of the president's trade agenda. I don't see anybody saying that

03:18this is real relief and that's what I hear my constituents I'll be having town

03:22hall meetings over the next couple of weeks and I'm telling you the question I'm

03:26asking you is what they're asking their elected officials and I want the record to

03:30note that I didn't get an answer. But let's move on to you then Mr. Keyes

03:34because you just heard your your partner here talk about other ways to make

03:40relief for small businesses and individuals happen and I want to ask you

03:45about about taxes. Now I talked to you about the Pfizer situation where we have

03:52done an intensive you know review and what we found is that Pfizer recently was

03:58paying no taxes in the United States no taxes at all when they were making

04:03billions of dollars in revenue and they do it through something called round

04:07tripping and basically they could set up all their taxes you know overseas. Why

04:13not instead of hitting Senator Hassan's constituents and my constituents with all

04:18these tariffs that raise their prices why don't we make changes in the tax policy

04:22make it more attractive to do business in the United States and not pursue a

04:26policy that hammers our constituents I would I would just point out and you're

04:36well aware this that the TCGA by lowering the top corporate rate to 21% made the

04:41United States the attractive place to do business and we haven't had you kidding

04:46me what we're seeing in studies like the one that we did it's just the opposite

04:51basically it's supercharged the ability to pay lower taxes overseas and now we got

04:58pharmacy companies big chains they're making tons of sales in the United States

05:03and paying no taxes here. And and to respond since the 2017 act was passed we

05:11haven't had a significant inversion transaction of any US company leaving the

05:15country which was happening at the rate of five per year in the prior period so

05:20there's clear evidence that it has made the United States an attractive place to

05:24do business. My time is up Mr. Chairman the reality is Pfizer told the IRS that it

05:30didn't make any money in the United States every dollar of profit was earned

05:34offshore and they're not paying taxes in the United States and a better way to

05:38bring companies back from overseas is to change the tax law so it's more

05:43attractive to do business here. I'm gonna hold the record open because I'd like to

05:47hear about any changes that are being looked at in the tax bill that's coming

05:52up to fix the problem in 2017. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Senator Hassan. Thank you Mr. Chair and

05:58Ranking Member for this hearing. Thank you Mr. Kimmett and Mr. Keyes for being here for

06:04your interest in serving for your record of serving and congratulations to you and

06:09your families for the nominations. I'm going to start with a very

Ron Wyden Grills Trump Nominee On How Admin Will Give 'Relief' To Small Businesses Hurt By Tariffs

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