I Confronted Trump Trade Ambassador On Tariff Refunds

[00:00:01]Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, Donald Trump campaigned for office going out every day promising that he would lower costs for American families on day one.

[00:00:13]Then he takes office and he slaps tariffs on and off and on and off nearly every product that we import.

[00:00:23]Americans are now paying for it. Uh based on an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office and the Treasury Department's own numbers, Trump's tariffs are costing cost families an average of $1,700.

[00:00:38]And that was before his illegal war in Iran pushed prices even higher. So, Ambassador Greer, over a year ago, you sat in this very room and my Democratic colleagues and I asked you about Trump's chaotic across-the-board tariffs and said, "They will drive up prices." And you said, "No, no. We can have tariffs and lower prices." Well, now we have the receipts. So, let's just clear this one up. Ambassador Greer, have Trump's tariffs increased prices for American families?

[00:01:14]>> Uh Senator, no. Core inflation fell to 2.6% year-on-year.

[00:01:19]Much better than in January 2025.

[00:01:21]>> So, you're saying that what the Congressional Budget Office and the Treasury Department's own numbers that families are paying an average of $1,700 more. Are you saying your own Treasury Department and your own Congressional Budget Office just don't know what they're talking about?

[00:01:36]>> Well, I'm interested in seeing what Treasury numbers you're talking about.

[00:01:39]No one's given them to me to look at, so I want to verify those.

[00:01:41]>> out there in public now for at least the last 6 months. They've been widely distributed because families are paying more. And there's no serious economist around the country, there's no serious person who looks at those numbers and thinks that families are doing better.

[00:01:56]Trump's tariffs mean that families have paid, on average, $1,700 last year. And now the United States Supreme Court has said that those tariffs were illegal and that the Trump administration has to give people their money back. So so far the administration has been slow-walking. Ambassador Greer, are American consumers going to get any refunds on the tariffs that were illegally collected from them?

[00:02:26]>> So Senator, when when the court ruled on this, they did exactly what the Democratic Attorney Attorney Generals who sued asked to do, which was to give money back to the companies, foreign and domestic, that paid the tariffs. That's what That's what Democratic Attorney Generals asked to do. They didn't say give it to consumers. They said give it to companies, so that's what we have to do.

[00:02:45]So we have to do.

[00:02:46]>> are you going to get money back to the American people who paid more? What the data show is the American people picked up about 95% of the cost of those Trump tariffs. They paid an average of $1,700.

[00:02:50]Now I just want to know if you even have the slightest effort making even the slightest effort to try to get some of that money back into the pockets of American families or does that just not matter to the Trump administration? So what happened is the foreign and domestic importers, right, who are buying foreign goods, not goods from American workers, foreign goods made by foreign workers who had to >> pay a fee on those foreign goods, those foreign importers of records domestic or foreign importers of records, they can file they had to pay the tariff they can get the tariff back. Manufacturing workers wages have gone up $2,600 way beyond what the Biden budget lab at Yale has calculated. What we know is that thousands of factory workers have lost their jobs. That means their incomes have gone to zero. But I take it what you're saying I think I've got your answer here and that is that the American people picked up about 95% of the cost of those Trump tariffs. They paid an average of $1,700. Now I just want to know if you even have the slightest effort making even the slightest effort to try to get some of that money back into the pockets of American families or does that just not matter to the Trump administration? So what happened is the foreign and domestic importers, right, who are buying foreign goods, not goods from American workers, foreign goods made by foreign workers who had to pay a fee on those foreign goods, those foreign importers of records domestic or foreign importers of records, they can file they had to pay the tariff they can get the tariff back. Manufacturing workers wages have gone up $2,600 way beyond what the Biden budget lab at Yale has calculated. What we know is that thousands of factory workers have lost their jobs. That means their incomes have gone to zero. But I take it what you're saying I think I've got your answer here and that is that the American people picked up about 95% of the cost of those Trump tariffs.

[00:03:53]They paid an average of $1,700. Now I just want to know administration just didn't care. Isn't even lifting a finger to try to get one nickel of the money that was collected from consumers back into the pockets of the consumers. And that certainly is where they are right now. Instead, what you've been doing is searching for other ways to see if you can take money out of the pockets of consumers with tariffs. And just this week you slapped on new tariffs using an obscure law from the 1930s plus using something called section 301.

[00:04:28]But here's my question. Ambassador Greer, if the Supreme Court strikes down your next round of tariffs, do you have a plan in place for how to return the money that American consumers pay under those tariffs? How to return that money directly to the families who pay? You can do this now. Put a plan in place. Do you have a plan in place?

[00:04:52]>> Uh Customs currently has a website to return any any tariffs to the foreign importers records or domestic importers who paid them and they'll continue to do that.

[00:05:01]>> asking about American families, the people you're supposed to be working for. Do you have any plan if this next round of tariffs are struck down for how you're going to get the money that is collected from American consumers back into their pockets?

[00:05:14]>> The the normal way that Customs law worked is that the importer of record, if they pay a tariff it's over and give it back. There's never been any >> you that. Look, I believe that tariffs can be used strategically quite valuably, but what the Trump administration is doing is picking the pockets of American consumers. And after Donald Trump promised he would lower costs on day one, he puts in place tariffs that have done nothing but raise prices for consumers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.