Grassley Complains Again About Section 232 Policy, as Canadian Ambassador Pushes on Hill

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, complained again April 2 that President Donald Trump doesn't understand that to get the new NAFTA ratified, he has to lift tariffs on Mexican and Canadian aluminum and steel. "The president has to come to the conclusion," he told reporters on a conference call, "and I don’t know why it’s taking him so long, because he wants U.S.-Mexico-Canada [Agreement] to get through. It’s a real victory for him. It’s a real campaign promise kept. So why the slow movement on it? Get rid of them!"

Grassley continued, "It’s just time until the president wakes up, and I don’t know why it’s taking so long for him to realize he has a victory at hand! Just take these tariffs off, they've gotta come off. Common sense tells me that."

He said if Canada doesn't vote to ratify the agreement before Parliament adjourns in June, it's certainly not going to be ratified next year, when the U.S. has a presidential campaign. Canada's U.S. Ambassador David MacNaughton spoke with New Democrats about the tariffs later on April 2, and told reporters afterward that Parliament needs to start debating the new NAFTA early in May to get a vote before adjournment. "If [tariffs] go much past the end of April, I don't know how we're going to get through," he said.

Grassley also touched on Section 232 tariffs on auto imports, and the legislation he's crafting to bridge the difference between Sen. Pat Toomey's and Sen. Rob Portman's proposals to change the statute for national security tariffs (see 1903270034). He declined to say which of the two Republican senators on his committee wasn't happy with the compromise so far, but Grassley said after a discussion, "he thought we were making some progress."

Grassley and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have asked for a copy of the Commerce report that lays out possible courses of action on autos and auto parts, and have not received it (see 1903210061). "I think it’s a study that would embarrass the administration," he said, and that's why he thinks they won't send a copy to Finance Committee leaders.