Grassley Says Section 232 Compromise Bill Will Come After August Recess
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who's been working for months on a compromise bill to address national security tariffs, said that an introduction won't happen until after the August recess. "We're trying to get a consensus on [Section] 232s, that isn't the easiest thing," he said. "But we're making some progress." He said, speaking to reporters on June 19, that he'd had meetings on the bill that day.
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Grassley said he would not try to add any constraints on the president's ability to use national emergency authority to levy taxes on Mexico, which he could do through the mock mark-up of U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement implementing bill. Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer earlier that day that a new NAFTA isn't very meaningful if the president can impose tariffs on Mexico on a whim. Grassley, who was responding to a question from International Trade Today, said, "We're going to have a tough time [ratifying USMCA], at least in the House. I don't want to muddy the waters. And you know how I felt about the president's tariffs."
While many Republicans on Ways and Means used their time to criticize a delay in bringing a USMCA ratification vote, Grassley continued to back what he called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's methodical approach to building support among Democrats for the deal. "We're just going to have patience until she gets it done," he said. Grassley said he'd be happy whenever the House acts, as long as it's soon enough to not get entangled with the 2020 presidential campaign, "because it's not going to go when that happens."