'Why are you negotiating trade deals?' GOP senator shuts down Trump Cabinet secretary
Senator John Neely Kennedy (R-LA) gestures while speaking as Kash Patel, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to be director of the FBI, testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
A Wednesday hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee grew heated as one Republican senator grilled Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over President Donald Trump's trade war.
Politico reported Wednesday that Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) confronted Lutnick over his intransigence to agree ti "reciprocity" if a trade partner offered a fair deal. Kennedy asked Lutnick point-blank if Vietnam — which is a major exporter of various goods totaling roughly $100 billion per year according to Trading Economics – offered to drop all trade barriers and tariffs if the U.S. agreed to do the same.
"“Absolutely not. That would be the silliest thing we could do," Lutnick said.
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The Commerce secretary argued that Vietnam could easily serve as a conduit for China and help it bypass tariffs by buying products from the Asian superpower and exporting them to the U.S. But a video of the exchange shows that Kennedy was unmoved by Lutnick's argument, saying that the goal of a trade war should be reciprocity with trade partners.
“Why are you negotiating trade deals then?” Kennedy replied. “You just said that if a country came to you and offered the ultimate reciprocity, no tariffs, no trade barriers, you would reject that.”
Kennedy then pushed Lutnick further, asking him whether he would green-light a reciprocal trade deal with Vietnam if Vietnam promised to not buy any new products from China. And while Lutnick was warmer toward that hypothetical deal, he still wouldn't commit to lift all tariffs against Vietnam unless certain points could be agreed upon.
"There are certain products we want to re-shore," Lutnick insisted. "We don't want other people making them, we want to make pharmaceuticals here. We need to protect ourselves from certain things.
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Watch the video of the exchange below, or by clicking this link.
