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Jamieson Greer: “We have this massive trade deficit, which you'll have some…”

Featuring: Jamieson Greer, U.S. Trade Representative | National

From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer

Published January 20, 2026 | Video Starts at 35:50

For them, this is just chaos. Well, for us, we're catching up for years where we allowed extremely non reciprocal relationships. For us, our actions on the trade side are largely defensive. We have this massive trade deficit, which you'll have some people say trade deficits don't matter. And I guess if you're a multinational corporation, they probably don't matter to you because you're making money on either side of the border. What do you care? (35:50–35:56)

CLAIM

Asserts that the U.S. has a massive trade deficit.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Jamieson Greer

“New Jersey lost almost 47% of its manufacturing jobs after 1994.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 03:59-04:06
“American per capita industrial output increased 525% from 1750 to 1860.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 06:29-06:38
“By 1913, US per capita industrial output was the greatest in the world, 10% greater than that of the UK.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 09:45-09:55
“American industrial production soared by over 1000% between 1860 and 1910.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 09:56-10:02
“Lyndon Johnson imposed 25% tariffs on pickup trucks that we still have to this day.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 13:34-13:40
“President Nixon put a 10% global tariff on the world in 1971.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 13:48-13:59
“We reduced that trade deficit with China by about 25% last year.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 39:24-39:29
“Over the past year, there have been 650,000 jobs created. And they're all in the private sector and they're all to Americans.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 45:28-45:36
“We're now down to 2.7 [percent inflation].”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 46:57-47:00
“Real wages went down by $3,000 over [the Biden] administration. We're already up $1,300.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 48:49-48:56
“We're pumping more oil than we ever have and the price of gas is down lower than it's been since 2019.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 52:03-52:09
“Canada put a big tariff on Chinese electric vehicles of 100%.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 57:43-57:48
“Canada's GDP is 75% dependent on the United States.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 58:29-58:34
“President Trump has revived [the American pragmatic trade] approach with great effect.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 00:38-00:41
“This approach...has resulted in increased GDP. It's reversed the trend in our trade deficit. It's boosted our wages, particularly for blue…”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 00:39-26:32
“Congress...has delegated a lot of that authority to the President.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 01:32-50:15
“Paterson [New Jersey] then became one of the poorest cities in the United States.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 02:55-04:20
“President Abraham Lincoln was a strong proponent of tariffs.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 07:14-07:18
“Smoot Hawley ended up raising the average tariff rate from 40 to 46%.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 11:51-11:56
“We protected our industry from foreign competition where that was necessary to unlock growth or to counteract Unfair production conditions…”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 14:04-14:12
“We leveraged the same playbook when we faced the challenge of a large trade deficit back in the 1980s due to non market policies in a…”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 14:21-14:30
“We bound our hands with NAFTA and the World Trade Organization in ways that made it impossible for the United States to effectively respond…”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 15:03-15:13
“The American system had become in some ways a global economic system, shaping the structures of economies far beyond our borders.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 15:26-15:34
“The negotiators at Bretton woods and other economic conferences wrote new rules based on this and baked tariffs and trade measures into the…”
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“John Maynard Keynes, the British economist and the British representative to the Bretton woods conference, he had an idea for how this could…”
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“The GATT text is still the text underpinning the World Trade Organization agreements.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 21:28-21:33
“Article 18 [of the GATT] explicitly states that it may be necessary...to take protective or other measures affecting imports.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 21:38-22:19
“Article 12 [of the GATT] says that countries that have a persistent trade deficit can impose tariffs to protect the balance of payments.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 22:19-22:26
“Article 6 [of the GATT]...says that countries can raise tariffs to respond to foreign subsidies or dumping.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 22:45-22:58
“The international trade rules, as originally written after World War II, do not promote free trade as an end in itself.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 23:02-23:09
“We allowed large non market economies into the world trading system, gave them the same tariff treatment as we did to market economies.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 23:58-24:06
“The United States unilaterally disarmed. We slashed our tariff rates below the rates of nearly all our trading partners.”
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“The United States is now moving forward to fix historic problems with historic solutions.”
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“President Trump has increased these tariff rates and made deals to open foreign markets.”
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“In the United States, we have export controls, we have sanctions, we have prohibitions.”
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“Europe has done nothing to implement the trade deal.”
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“Europeans have not lowered a single tariff for us.”
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“The trade agreement...doesn't fix all of the agricultural issues we have with Europe.”
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“It doesn't fix the regulatory issues, which are hugely problematic.”
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“It doesn't fix pharmaceutical price.”
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“Really exploded by 40% in the last five years, these are defensive measures.”
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“We've had very substantial tariffs on China.”
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“Our trade deficit with the EU this year might end up, or for 2025, might end up being bigger than our trade deficit with China.”
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“You limit our agricultural imports, you limit our industrial imports, and you have a huge surplus with us.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 39:37-39:44
“We've taken measures to protect against overcapacity, certainly from China, they're the biggest offender.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 40:28-40:33
“There are other Asian economies, Vietnam, elsewhere, who have a lot of overcapacity.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 40:32-40:37
“The administration gave the court a clear pathway to find and favor the administration.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 42:27-42:33
“The plain language of the statute authorizes the president in an emergency situation to regulate imports.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 42:37-42:43
“There's an emergency with our trade deficit and offshoring, courts typically will defer on the emergency.”
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“The Trump team has been thinking about these actions for years.”
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“The president chose to use IPA because it is the most appropriate to the situations we're facing for the emergency.”
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“Manufacturing productivity has shot up over the past year.”
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“Manufacturing wages have gone up.”
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“Health care [is] subsidized by the government, so it goes up.”
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“There's oversupply in the world for most goods.”
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“Education, it's subsidized by the government, so it goes up.”
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“Energy, these are often state run utilities that are poorly run in many cases, so it goes up.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 49:32-49:39
“Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution entrusts tariff policy to the Congress of the United States.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 49:57-50:08
“GDP last year was at 3.2% higher than expected.”
From Hamilton to Today: Trade and U.S. Economic Strategy with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | Uploaded January 20, 2026 | 52:46-52:50
“It's projected for 5.4.”
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“American energy is the most dependable energy for Europe.”
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“LNG is something that is a relatively clean fossil fuel compared to others.”
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“Europe's continued reliance to some degree on Russian oil is...dissonant.”
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“The United States is always going to be a better source for LNG.”
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“The services numbers... are quite unreliable.”
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“We have a very good and reliable know sense of what the goods trade looks like.”
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