WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today questioned the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on the Trump Administration’s misuse of tariffs for issues unrelated to trade, including the President’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexico to force them into an agreement on immigration. Menendez grilled Robert Lighthizer, who continually dodged pointed questions about President Trump’s tariff policy, during a Finance Committee hearing on the 2019 Trade Policy Agenda and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

“For an entire week, the President threw a high stakes temper tantrum and put tens of thousands of U.S. jobs at risk by threating tariffs that would raise costs for American consumers and businesses,” said Sen. Menendez in his opening remarks. “But Ambassador, you and I know that tariffs are just a tool. They can be the right tool in some cases, but they definitely can be the wrong one in many cases. In my mind, imposing tariffs on Mexico because the President felt they weren’t doing enough on immigration clearly would be wrong.”

In response to Sen. Menendez’s questions on the appropriateness of President Trump threatening tariffs to achieve non-trade-related goals, Lighthizer repeatedly said he had “not given that five seconds worth of thought.”

“I know you haven’t given it five seconds of thought but here’s the point: we need to know what is the line in which tariffs that affects markets as well as American jobs, because tariffs at the end of the day are taxes paid by business and American consumers,” Sen. Menendez responded. “[The President] thinks that tariffs are the end-all and be-all at the end of the day, and it’s a dangerous economic game to play.”

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