US trade official defends Trump’s tariffs, says almost 50 countries approached him to ‘explore how to achieve reciprocity’

By Phil Mattingly and Bryan Mena, CNN

(CNN) –– President Donald Trump’s US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday defended the administration’s expansive tariffs during a routine hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.

“Last Wednesday, President Trump declared a national emergency in response to the large and persistent trade deficit that has built up in recent years,” Greer said in his prepared remarks. “This deficit is driven in part by non- reciprocal tariffs, trading barriers, and other economic policies pursued by our foreign trading partners. President Trump imposed tariffs to address this emergency.”

Greer then said the president’s “strategy is already bearing fruit” and that nearly “50 countries have approached me to discuss the President’s new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity.”

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Democratic ranking member of the committee, decried Trump’s sweeping tariffs and said he is introducing a new privileged resolution “to end the latest crop of global tariffs that are clobbering American families and small businesses.”

“The Trump aimless, chaotic tariff spree has proven beyond a doubt that Congress has given far too much of our constitutional power on international trade over to the executive branch,” he said. “It is time to take that power back.”

Greer said the administration is in talks with about 50 countries and that “many” of them have signaled that they don’t plan to retaliate against the United States. He also pointed to the prominent role that so-called non-trade barriers are playing in Trump’s trade policy, one of them being foreign countries’ regulations rooted in “fake science.”

This story is developing and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.