Ways and Means Members React to USTR Meeting
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, characterized a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer as a good dialogue, but according to some media reports, Democrats who attended the June 7 meeting said Lighthizer did not provide a clear explanation of where the U.S. is in NAFTA talks or in the China trade dispute. "My message remains the same: our trade practices need to hit the right target which is China … not our allies, and certainly not Americans," Brady said in a statement issued after the meeting. "But the Administration’s recent actions don’t achieve that goal."
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Brady said Canada, Mexico and the European Union should not be hit with tariffs on aluminum and steel, and said that the product exclusion process is broken. He said he told Lighthizer that a revised NAFTA should retain the investor-state dispute settlement program and should not have a sunset clause. Trade Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., said the tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from close allies "hurts American manufacturers, consumers and workers … and it exposes our exporters to retaliation from our trading partners." The USTR declined to comment on the meeting.