Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said on Thursday that he cannot piece together Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s position on tariffs and trade negotiations.
During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Lutnick told Kennedy on Wednesday that he would not accept a deal from a nation that offered to trade without any tariffs or trade barriers because it would allegedly benefit China’s economy. After appearing baffled by Lutnick’s answer, Kennedy told “Morning Joe” he is struggling to “understand” what the purpose of the ongoing trade deals and negotiations are if it is not to lower tariffs.
“It’s clear that President Trump listens to Secretary Lutnick, so I spent the time I had trying to figure out where he’s coming from. And I don’t understand. I mean, I asked him point-blank, I mean, my vision of reciprocity which I think is a good thing is to lower tariffs, if you can, to zero on both sides,” Kennedy said. “And let there be a free exchange of goods and services may the best product and the best service win. And I thought that’s where Secretary Lutnick was going, but I asked him yesterday if Vietnam for example removed every tariffs and every trade barrier, would we remove ours? And he said ‘no, that would be silly.’”
“So the obvious question is, who’s on first? What’s on second? Why are we having these trade talks? And I don’t understand based on his answers. I’m gonna try to have a conversation with him,” Kennedy continued.
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The Louisiana senator said the point of Trump’s tariffs is reciprocity, and that he attempted to ask Lutnick where these trade deals are going and how it will impact the markets. He assumed that the commerce secretary was being “purposefully evasive” toward his questioning.
During the hearing, Kennedy asked Lutnick what the purpose of reciprocity is given that he would not accept a deal with no tariffs or trade barriers. The commerce secretary said he would only accept such a deal if a nation agreed to not buy from China, but the deal would only apply to certain products because the U.S. wants the ability to manufacture its own goods.
After imposing reciprocal tariffs on April 2, Trump issued a 90-day pause on most nations and negotiated a deal with China that lowered its tariffs from from 145% to 30%, while China’s retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. dropped from 125% to 10%.
Trump also threatened to impose a 50% tariff on the European Union (EU) on June 1 over their lack of trade concessions during the 90-pause, though he postponed the tariffs until July 9 following a discussion with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
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