US trade chief says not seeing countries move to pull out of tariff deals

By Andrea Shalal, Tatiana Bautzer and Marianna Parraga

WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday said none of the countries that have reached trade deals with the U.S. had shared plans to withdraw following a Supreme Court decision striking down a large swath of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Greer told CBS News' "Face the Nation" program that he had already spoken with his counterpart from the European Union and would be speaking with officials from other countries.

"I haven't heard anyone yet come to me and say the deal is off," Greer said in the first of several media interviews about the Supreme Court ruling. "They want to see how this plays out."

Trump on Friday imposed a 10% temporary tariff after the Supreme Court struck down his previous tariff program, which was based on an economic emergency law, and ordered the start of new investigations under other statutes that officials say could result in additional tariffs affecting many trading partners. 

On Saturday he lifted the temporary duty to 15%, the maximum allowed by the law.

Trump's decision to hike the tariff rate after less than 24 hours reflected the "urgency of the situation," Greer told CBS, citing the need to reduce what he called huge trade imbalances with other countries.

Greer repeated his statements that the United States would stick to the agreements it had reached, including with the EU, and expected its trading partners to do the same.

The European Commission, in a strongly worded statement issued after Greer spoke, demanded on Sunday that Washington stick to the terms of the U.S.-EU trade deal reached last year. It also said Washington must provide "full clarity" on the steps it intends to take following the court ruling.

"The current situation is not conducive to delivering 'fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial' transatlantic trade and investment, as agreed to by both sides," the Commission said. "A deal is a deal."

The U.S.-EU deal set a 15% U.S. tariff rate for most EU goods, apart from those covered by other sectoral tariffs such as on steel, while eliminating tariffs on some products such as aircraft and spare parts. The EU in turn agreed to remove import duties on many U.S. goods, although it has not yet enacted those changes, and withdrew a threat to retaliate with higher levies.

The EU and other countries are concerned about possible future tariffs that the U.S. could impose following new investigations under separate statutes.

Speaking on ABC News' "This Week" program, Greer said the Trump administration would reconstruct its trade policy using other legal tools, including the Section 301 unfair practices statute and the Section 232 statute, both of which have withstood legal challenges. 

He told ABC that the USTR already had Section 301 investigations open into Brazil and China, and expected to initiate new probes into areas such as industrial excess capacity, which would cover many countries in Asia, and unfair trading practices regarding rice, which is heavily subsidized by some countries.

It was not immediately clear if any of the already negotiated tariff deals with the EU and others would exclude those countries from fresh tariffs as a result of the new probes. Greer on Friday said these probes could also look at countries' digital services taxes, a sensitive issue in Europe.

Greer said he did not expect the ruling and subsequent change in tariffs to affect Trump's planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of March.

"The purpose of this meeting with President Xi is not to fight about trade. It's to maintain stability, make sure that the Chinese are holding up their end of our deal and buying American agricultural products and Boeings and other things," Greer said. "I don't see this really affecting that meeting."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a separate interview with CNN's "State of the Union" program, said the issue of tariff refunds would be addressed by the lower courts. 

"We will follow what they decide, but it can take weeks or months until we hear from them", he said.

Bessent told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" program that Treasury expected its tariff revenues to remain the same despite the Supreme Court ruling, given that new probes under Section 301 were likely to result in new tariffs.

"We've been in contact with our foreign trading partners, and they like the tariff deals, so they're not going to be changed," he added.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Tatiana Bautzer and Marianna Parraga; additional reporting by Jasper Ward, editing by Michelle Nichols and Chizu Nomiyama)