Greer Says New U.S. Tariffs Will Not Hit Growth Or Fed Policy

According to Lianhe Zaobao citing Fox News, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said President Donald Trump's new tariffs on 60 trading partners over alleged failures to curb forced labor will not create fresh damage to the economy and will not affect the Federal Reserve's interest-rate policy. Speaking on Monday, July 27, Greer said the new Section 301 tariffs of 10% or 12.5% are comparable to the expired global tariff level and cover a smaller group of economies, adding they should not cause any economic shock different from what the U.S. has already experienced. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative had previously said the new tariffs would cover 99.4% of U.S. imports. Greer also said he did not think the tariffs would have any impact on the Fed's monetary policy decision due this week.

Greer said the U.S. Trade Representative's Office is continuing a Section 301 investigation into China, Vietnam, Mexico, the European Union and 12 other economies over possible industrial overcapacity, and he hopes the probe will be completed soon. He said the findings could lead to additional tariffs. Separately, Brazil said on Monday it had requested consultations with the United States under the World Trade Organization's dispute-settlement mechanism over the Trump administration's latest tariff measures. Brazil said the U.S. had imposed a 25% tariff on some Brazilian goods under Section 301 and a 12.5% tariff on Brazil as one of the 60 economies targeted over forced labor. Brazil said the measures were unreasonable and inconsistent with the United States' commitments under the WTO's 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.