WASHINGTON – Today in the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed the Trump administration’s efforts to achieve fair and balanced trade with United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here.  

CORNYN: “Our friends in Australia basically have put up barriers to the export of beef from the United States. My state, Texas, happens to produce a lot of beef cattle, and Australia basically denies access to its huge market, but not as a result of tariffs so much as non-tariff barriers to trade. Could you speak to that?”

GREER: “It’s always surprising because we have a free trade agreement with Australia, and we would expect that we would have fair, reciprocal trade. Last year, I think we imported about $3 billion worth of Australian beef, and we exported zero dollars of American beef to Australia—and it’s not just beef.”

“It’s incredible that they do this. We have zero exports of the fresh and frozen U.S. pork to Australia.”

CORNYN: “I find it interesting that people express surprise at President Trump’s policies, when he’s been talking about these policies for—best I can tell—for decades and how unfair trading arrangements are between various countries.”

“Indeed, some of these unfair trading practices have resulted in the deindustrialization of America. We’ve exported manufacturing to Asia, particularly China, and other countries that now appear to be willing to hold us hostage to those supply chains.”

“Would you speak to the vulnerabilities that exist as a result of China basically processing 90 percent of the critical minerals in the world that are essential for our daily lives?”

GREER: “That figure is always one that gives me great concern.”

“That’s a very dangerous situation to be in. I mean, this is part of the urgency of what we’re talking about, and I think as the Trump administration certainly takes action on trade, but also takes action on the environmental side and permitting and regulation. That’s an area we can actually have more of that activity here in the United States or we can work with our trading partners to try to incentivize production there as well.”