The United States Senate on Wednesday confirmed Jamieson Greer as a trade representative, putting the veteran of the commercial wars of the first mandate of Donald Trump fully in the position to days of the deadline of March 4 to punish with 25% tariffs the imports of Canada and Mexico.
The Senate voted 56-43 to confirm Greer, a Washington commercial lawyer who served as chief of former commercial chief Robert Lighthizer. Five Democrats supported their appointment.
Greer will assume the position while Mexican and Canadian officials worked to persuade the Trump government that their efforts to ensure US borders were working to stop the entry of migrants, fentanyl and the chemical precursors of the mortal opioid.
Trump initially threatened the tariffs by declaring a national emergency on February 1 on immigration and fentanyl under the International Emergency Emergency Powers Law, and used the same rule to punish China with 10% tariffs for the fentanyl trade.
Trump’s tariff measures have multiplied, including an increase to steel of up to 25% by revocation of exemptions and aluminum, which would enter into force on March 12 and would mainly affect Canada and Mexico.
On Tuesday, Trump launched a new tariff research on copper imports, just a few days after reactivating inquiries aimed at imposing tariffs on countries that charge taxes for digital services to US technology companies.
But on Wednesday, Trump said the new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada will enter into force on April 2.
Greer will help lead a Trump effort to determine the highest American “reciprocal” tariff rates to match the import rights of other countries and compensate for non -tariff commercial barriers.
Some trade experts have said that a possible result of the deadline of Canada and Mexico tariffs could be the launch of an early renegotiation of the United States-Canadá (TMEC) commercial agreement, the renewed commercial agreement launched by Trump in 2020.
However, Trump said Monday that tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products are “on time and as planned.”
Greer told the senators during his confirmation hearing in the Senate that he wanted to quickly renegotiate the TMEC to ensure that China does not use the agreement as a rear door to the US market to avoid other tariffs.
“From the beginning, I hope we take a second glance to the TMEC,” Greer said.
To the question of what changes he would like to see in the covenant, Greer focused on greater hardening of the regulations on automobile content.
“I think we should examine the rules of origin for cars and the aerospace sector and other things to see if we need some type of restriction on the content or added value of foreign countries of interest, or non -market economies,” he said, using an expression that United States trade officials often use to refer to China.
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