Wyden: USTR Cannot Unilaterally Reverse US Trade Laws and Policy
Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released a letter today expressing serious concerns to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer about his agency’s recent submission to the World Trade Organization, which attempted to reverse decades of American trade policy and undermine bedrock trade principles that are written into U.S. law.
Wyden’s letter comes in response to a December 15 submission by the Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to the World Trade Organization, indicating that America no longer supports longstanding trade principles known as most-favored nation treatment.
“MFN principles are intended to prevent escalating trade wars that harm American industries, threaten jobs, and drive up consumer prices. They have been approved by Congress and enshrined in U.S. law, and Donald Trump’s legally dubious claim that he can use emergency authority to unilaterally dictate tariff rates for each country—which is currently under review at the Supreme Court—does not change the United States’ position,” Wyden wrote. “Congress has constitutional authority over trade, and if there is going to be a change in this long-standing U.S. trade policy, it must come from Congress, not statements by USTR in Geneva.”
Read the full letter to USTR here.
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