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Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about two subjects very different in nature. I want to start with the deadline and, I believe, tomorrow's imposition of a 50-percent tariff on Brazil imports.

I really appreciate what the administration is doing, trying to get other countries on notice that we are tired of unfair balance of trade. We have probably allowed it to go on for too long. So some of the chaos that some people may think the administration is creating with these tariffs is absolutely necessary to stop the chaos of the United States being unfairly positioned with trade partners. So on that side of the ledger, I support what the administration is doing.

But as somebody who advised businesses on capital expenditures, on corporate relocations, on manufacturing facilities, those sorts of things, in my prior career, I am worried about how this 50-percent tariff on Brazil--a country that we have a trade surplus with-- undermines our credibility as we are trying to negotiate these other tariffs because I met with some members of the Brazilian senate earlier this week in my office. I actually had a number of them there. It was opposition and governing party in my office.

The President has threatened a tariff on Brazil because he is not satisfied with the outcome of a judicial proceeding related to a prior leader in Brazil. I had someone who described themselves as a friend of this man who said: I am a friend of this person, and we are working to try and get that judicial outcome reversed, but we don't understand how a judicial decision of a sovereign nation would end up resulting in a tariff for a country that has a trade surplus with the United States.

I agree, and I think it really puts Brazil in an untenable situation. To avoid the tariff, they would have to disrespect their rule of law, and they would have to overturn, arbitrarily, something that has gone through their courts. Whether or not their courts live up to the standards of the United States, I don't know. I guess you could argue it one way or the other. But at the end of the day, they are a sovereign nation, and we have a positive balance of trade with them, and we are asking them to reverse a court decision or encounter a 50- percent tariff on goods coming into this country. Well, think coffee, think inputs from manufacturing, think any number of products that you buy, apparel that says ``Made in Brazil'' having a 50-percent tariff applied to it because our President of the United States doesn't like the outcome of a court system in a sovereign nation.

So I would encourage the President to do like that senate member in my office, who is a member of the opposition, the minority party, who says: He is a friend of mine. We are working through our court system, but allow us to do that. Please don't do the economic damage to a nearly 200-year-old relationship with a sovereign nation.

And on that subject, I agree.

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