| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
And the House has gaveled out. | |
| Today, members are working on several pieces of legislation, including a measure to provide tax relief for residents of Taiwan who also pay U.S. taxes. | ||
| Lawmakers are also considering a measure to increase transparency for the incomes of certain employees of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public power provider. | ||
| And later this week, we expect a bill to come to the floor that would deport undocumented immigrants convicted of certain sex offenses and other violent crimes. | ||
| You can watch live coverage of the House when members return right here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are still at our core a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
| We are joined by Representative Adrian Smith, Republican of Nebraska. | ||
| He's the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chair, and he serves the third district of the state of Nebraska. | ||
| Representative Smith, thanks for joining us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Great to be here. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| As chair of the subcommittee, can we get your personal thoughts on how tariffs should be applied in the United States? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, tariffs are something that's been around a long time. | |
| We've found out that they can have varied impact at various times, impact the economy as well. | ||
| Overall, I can't say I'm a huge fan of tariffs, but I do believe they need to be a tool in the toolbox as negotiations take place. | ||
| It's very important that we are tough negotiators to level the playing field that over time has been pretty slanted against us. | ||
| When you say you're not a huge fan, is that because of their ultimate impact on an economy or are there other reasons? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That potential, certainly. | |
| And representing a lot of agriculture, we don't really like it when other countries place tariffs on our products. | ||
| And we're good exporters of ag products, let's face it. | ||
| Other countries tend to like our quality and price and value. | ||
| And so we don't like it when they place the tariffs on us. | ||
| That said, we need to keep our options on the table as negotiations would move forward. | ||
| President Olik Trump has talked about a variety of ways to approach tariffs and wants to achieve certain amounts of things with them. | ||
| Generally, what do you think of the approach he's taking? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think it's important that we drive a tough negotiation. | |
| And, you know, I've shared this with a lot of folks that we need to level the playing field, make no mistake. | ||
| And I think what we've seen over the last four years and lack of action, in fact, some of my Democrat colleagues just yesterday in committee criticized tariffs. | ||
| Now that Trump's coming back in, even though nothing was done about tariffs over the last four years, and let me say even more importantly, there was such a lack of action on trade across the board for the last four years. | ||
| That inaction, I think, is especially damaging because our competitors, our trade partners, expect more from the United States of America than what they've seen in the last four years. | ||
| Specifically, then, what would you like to see the administration do to a specific country when it comes to tariff policy? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Take Kenya, for example. | |
| The previous Trump administration teed up a trade agreement with Kenya. | ||
| Now, Kenya already enjoys the benefits of what we call AGOA, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, an important policy. | ||
| Kenya enjoys those benefits, basically tariff relief. | ||
| And so there are other aspects, though, of trade with Kenya that we could benefit from in terms of market access, agriculture being one of those. | ||
| So the Trump administration teed up a trade agreement, like I said, with Kenya. | ||
| The Biden administration comes in and says, well, we'll talk about trade, but not about tariffs. | ||
| I can't understand why that's been the case when, like I said, Kenya already benefits from a GOA. | ||
| Let's talk about market access and how we, our exporters from the United States, can get their products into a country such as Kenya on a continent that's growing in population. | ||
| That's what separates Africa from so many other continents is its growing population. | ||
| And I suppose those countries go, then China would come to the top of that list as far as how we apply those tariffs. | ||
| What's the concern and what's the benefit of applying tariffs going forward or applying other tariffs? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the details can be very fine on all of trade. | |
| Trade is a lot of work. | ||
| And with growing technology, diversifying economies, that makes trade even more difficult. | ||
| So digital, for example, that is an important one because the U.S. leads the world in digital trade. | ||
| Other countries say, well, that's a great source of revenue, especially if it only comes from another country such as ours. | ||
| That can be damaging in various ways, among them access to information and the flow of information. | ||
| That is important as well. | ||
| China, as a competitor, let's face it, and they are engaging in places around the world where we are not. | ||
| That's a problem. |