GOP Senator Grills Trump Trade Rep on Tariffs: ‘Whose Throat Do I Get to Choke’ if You’re Wrong?

Republican Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) questioned Ambassador Jamieson Greer, the United States Trade Representative, during a Senate hearing on Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs and asked Greer if his is the “throat to choke” if the economy crashes.

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ambassador Greer, thank you for being here. Back in the 90s, I was in management consulting and there was a new platform that came out that promised to transform the business industry, ERP. Some of the early attempts at implementing the system proposed an alla prima approach. Let’s do it all at once. Let’s change the plumbing out. Let’s get it all in, get it done, rip the band-aid off,” Tillis began, adding:

It proved to be hugely unsuccessful. There are a lot of very visible projects and the industry decided there needed to be a methodical sort of prioritization of what parts of the business needed to perform better sooner and how do you layer onto that a comprehensive strategy.

It looks like we’ve got a novel approach here in terms of an alla prima approach. I’m not a trade expert and I’m going to question it at this point. I do have a question about at the end of the day– the other thing in management consulting we like to focus on is this concept of one throat to choke.

In other words, when you’re finally taking a look at a strategy, someone has to own it. And you can’t say that it’s the president or the vice president. So my first question to you, in this scenario, the decision maker who decided the alla prima approach, who has obviously had to have spent time anticipating what we saw in the markets and some of the pushback, I’m assuming this all got gamed out, because it’s a novel approach, it need to be thought out. Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?

“Well, Senator, you can certainly always talk to me, but I will-” answer Greer as Tillis interjected, “But are you at the tip of the spear?”

“Well, I’m at the tip of the spear, certainly,’ Greer replied.

“Did you propose the alla prima approach?” Tillis pressed.

“So, first of all, I would push back, Senator, just a little bit on this. For now, we’ve excluded pharmaceuticals and semiconductors to take a different kind of approach–” Greer added.

“So that’s good, lets me get to this,” Tillis replied, adding:

Section 232 and 301, we know particularly, section 232 is still in aluminum, section 301 is Chinese imports, where there’s no other provider. I overheard you say that maybe, I thought I heard you say in response to another question, that for the near term, there won’t be any exclusions.

Is that true of China, where they have said, ‘The U.S. is unilaterally bullying and completely groundless, and they’re going to fight to the end.’ Are they 232 and 301 tariffs exclusions on the shelves until we get to a reasonable agreement with China? I’m just trying to answer a question that I have several people in North Carolina asking.

“So the president, again, is the final decision maker on all of these things, and he has directed that there not be exclusions or exemptions,” Greer replied.

“There will not be any exclusions on steel, aluminum, or any products that are only manufactured in China for the foreseeable future until China determines what the end is, because they said they’re going to fight to the end,” Tillis replied, adding:

Again, I’m just trying to communicate questions that I’ve asked, so there will be no exclusions. I won’t waste your time asking for them. That’s the main reason I wanted to ask the question.

So, again… I’m just trying to get my head around the logic of an alla prima approach and I’m waiting to see it be successful but it just seems like we’ve decided to begin a trade war on all fronts and that’s okay if the person who thought this through has an answer for why you go after partners that we have a very long storied relationship with.

Maybe we give some developing countries a break because we’re trying to actually get their economies functioning, make them look to the West versus to Chinese investment. So it just seems like, again, I’m getting my head around the alla prima approach. I’m not condemning it because I’m a not a trade expert, but I still, at some point, and I understand that you are the trade rep, so if you own this decision, then I’ll look to you to figure out if we’re gonna be successful.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.