The following is the transcript of an interview with U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on April 13, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: For more, we go to United States Trade Representative, Ambassador. Jamieson Greer. Good morning to you, Mr. Ambassador.
AMBASSADOR JAMIESON GREER: Good morning, Margaret, how are you?
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m well. I’m hoping you can give us some news of movement on this clash. Is the Trump administration opening any kind of channel to Beijing right now? Are there any plans for presidents Trump and Xi to speak?
AMBASSADOR GREER: Right now, we don’t have any plans on that. This issue is truly at the leaders level. Before April 2, I had a conversation with my counterpart, and others did since April 2. We have this at the leaders’ level, and at some point, as President Trump has pointed out, we expect that we’ll be able to have a conversation with them.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, China holds about one and a half trillion dollars in assets in this country, about half of them are U.S. Treasuries. In the past, you’ve talked- you’ve spoken about “strategic decoupling from China” and acknowledged it would cause some short-term pain. Are you trying to get China to sell some of those assets? Is that part of your goal as well?
AMBASSADOR GREER: That’s not part of this plan. President Trump has a global program to try to reshore American manufacturing and address the trade deficit. It’s a global issue. The only reason we’re really in this position right now is because China chose to retaliate. So many other countries affirmatively said they did not want to retaliate, we want to negotiate with the Americans, and the Chinese made a different decision. So, it’s not a plan to do that. It was a Chinese decision. They have agency here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But are you prepared for China to consider selling assets it holds in the United States, and do you want that to happen?
AMBASSADOR GREER: Well, remember, China has been selling off Treasuries for some time. It’s not a- it’s not a brand-new development. You know, the Treasuries market will fluctuate. You know, I’m not the Treasury Secretary, so I’m not the best poised to talk about that. But I think the issue is we’ve become so dependent on China, and for so many decades, we haven’t had fair market access. And so- so again, we see China taking action, implementing their policy, to try to be less tied up with us as well. So, it’s not- it’s not surprising to see them making these kinds of moves. We obviously have to be prepared on our part to have a resilient economy.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So last Friday, late in the day, the administration published some exceptions to the tariffs on countries, including China, with smartphones, computers, electronics and machines that make semiconductor computer chips. Last Sunday on this program, the Commerce Secretary told us the tariffs are part of a strategy to bring high tech factories to the US. Take a listen.
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SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK: The army of millions and millions of human beings, screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones. That kind of thing is going to come to America. It’s going to be automated and great Americans, the tradecraft of America, is going to fix them, is going to work on them….. Our high school educated Americans, the core to our workforce, is going to have the greatest resurgence of jobs in the history of America, to work on these high-tech factories.
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MARGARET BRENNAN: But now those high-tech items are given these exceptions. So, is the goal still to move electronics manufacturing to the United States?
AMBASSADOR GREER: We certainly need to have semiconductors, and the downstream electronics supply chain move to the United States. What happened is- it’s not really an exception. That’s not even the right word for it. What happened is, this type of supply chain moved from the tariff regime for the global tariff, the reciprocal tariff, and it moved to the national security tariff regime, where we have studies ongoing for pharmaceuticals, for semiconductors, metals, et cetera. So, it’s not that they won’t be subject to tariffs geared at reshoring. They’ll just be under a different regime. It’s shifting from one bucket of tariffs to a different bucket of potential tariffs.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But those tariffs aren’t in place?
AMBASSADOR GREER: That’s right.–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — So, they are exempt from them?
AMBASSADOR GREER: — that is- that is subject to study by the Commerce Department. For now, they’re subject to a 20% tariff. They’re subject to a 20% tariff that’s on China.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The Commerce Secretary was on another network this morning, and he said semiconductors are, “exempt from reciprocal tariffs,” but that won’t be a permanent sort of exemption. Here’s what you told my colleague, Nicole Killion, April 8.
[START SOUND ON TAPE]
NIKOLE KILLION: Why aren’t there any exemptions with some of these tariffs, sir?
GREER: The President decided that we’re not going to have exemptions. We can’t have a Swiss cheese solution to this universal problem that we’re facing.
[END SOUND ON TAPE]
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, I hear you saying the carve outs are temporary, but isn’t that still the Swiss cheese situation you said you were trying to avoid?
AMBASSADOR GREER: I would just disagree with that, Margaret. We have two different tariff programs. You have the global reciprocal tariff getting at the trade deficit, and you have critical sector national security tariffs, where we- we have tariffs in place on auto, steel and aluminum, and we have them coming on semiconductors in the supply chain, pharmaceuticals, lumber, copper, et cetera. They’re just different approaches to do it. We have to be much more deliberate about the semiconductor supply chain, because we don’t even import semiconductors as such that much, right? They go into downstream products. So, we have to be very careful. And we want the whole supply chain here, not just one product.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, the President said on Monday, he’d be much more specific. Will we see those sectoral tariffs announced? I mean, he- he’s saying he’s already putting big tariffs on pharma. You’re telling me that there’s going to be an investigation into it. That’s something that sounds like it’s far in the future. What- what time frame are we talking about?
AMBASSADOR GREER: Well, you have- for the National Security tariffs, you have to do an investigation in order to impose the tariffs. That’s just legal process. That’s- that’s how we do it. That’s how it’s done for steel, aluminum, autos, etc–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, but you’ve decided the outcome.
AMBASSADOR GREER: — investigations for those. No, we have not. We have not. That’s why they’re exempt- that’s why they’re, you know, they don’t have a tariff covered right now, because you have to go through the investigation to determine the outcome.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Is it–
AMBASSADOR GREER: — We expect there will have to be some kind of tariff on that, but we have to go through the investigation, figure out what’s appropriate, and that- and that’s a Commerce Department function to do that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. I understand you and the Treasury secretary are going to be meeting on the 17th of- of the month with Japanese officials to talk about the potential of a trade deal. I’ve been told you’ve been looking at some of these non-tariff barrier issues that the United States sees problems with, in current- including their currency. Are you asking governments to do things like that, not just, you know, to buy into America, but to actually change their own currency and change, like their central bank policy?
AMBASSADOR GREER: So, our view, Margaret, is that currency manipulation or misalignment, whatever you want to call it, that can have a negative impact on U.S. exporters and unfairly advantage of foreign exports into the United States. ln the USMCA and in the Japan- China- the Japan-U.S. deal from the first Trump term, we had chapters with the parties committing not to do currency manipulation. You know, the Treasury Department has a statute to avoid that. So we certainly are in these kinds of discussions with these countries to see if they’re willing to make these types of commitments as well (INAUDIBLE)–
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s a pretty big ask.
AMBASSADOR GREER: Well, the Japanese agreed to it in the first Trump term. The Canadians and the Mexicans agreed to it. This is something that periodically has- has happened over the years. Countries have had to revalue to make sure they aren’t giving artificial competition- you know, artificial competitive advantage to their exports. I mean, it’s a big ask, because we’re in a- we’re in a nefarious situation. We have a $1.2 trillion trade deficit that Biden left us with. It’s the highest in human history. And currency certainly part of that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But- but I say it’s a big ask because it takes time to negotiate. It could take you longer than 90 days, right? So, does that mean this 90-day reprieve could continue to be renewed? Do you know what happens at the end of 90 days is that the amount of time you have to negotiate deals with the 70 countries the White House says are calling?
AMBASSADOR GREER: Well, I’m considering that we have 90 days before April 2. We were already having many talks with other countries, because everyone knew tariffs were coming. This was- this was not some secret everyone knew. And so, we already were in conversations with several countries. You know, it’s going to be up to these countries to come to the table, continue coming to the table and make these kinds of offers. I mean, the reality is, we’re working around the clock, day and night, you know, sharing paper, receiving offers and giving feedback to these countries with respect to how they can better achieve reciprocal trade with the United States.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But 90 days could be a rolling deadline, is what I hear you saying?
AMBASSADOR GREER: Well, I- I would not say that. In the President’s Cabinet meeting last week, he was asked about this, and he said, well, we’ll see. I mean, my goal is to get meaningful deals before 90 days, and I think we’re going to be there with several countries in the next few weeks.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Ambassador, the president, I know you were testifying on- on the Hill when the president changed the policy on reciprocal tariffs. He said later to reporters that he didn’t have access to lawyers when he made the announcement of the change in policy. Quote, “we wrote it up from our hearts. It was written from the heart.” He said that a few times. Why doesn’t the president have access to trade lawyers when he’s announcing policy? These are massive policy shifts. I’m sure there’s somebody who could have taken a call.
JAMIESON GREER: So that type of- that type of discussion had been happening for- for several days. He’s talking about drafting the tweets. He drafted the tweet from his heart. But that kind of policy, that was always a possibility, and the order was drafted by lawyers to ensure that the President could modify the policy to further the underlying goals of the order. So- so lawyer- you know, trade lawyers like- like myself and a huge staff that works for me, White House Counsel, et cetera, they’ve all been involved from day one to give the President the kind of flexibility he needs to address the emergency he’s declared that’s forms the basis for these tariffs.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Ambassador Greer, thank you for your time this morning, we’ll be watching what you get done. “Face the Nation” will be back in a minute. Stay with us.
