US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer Talks Hormuz, China Talks, Trade Tariffs

Summary

Bloomberg Talks: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Hormuz, China Talks, and Trade Tariffs

Date: March 31, 2026
Host: Anne Marie (Bloomberg)
Guest: Ambassador Jamieson Greer, U.S. Trade Representative

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Overview

This episode features an in-depth interview with Ambassador Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, following his return from a high-level WTO meeting in Cameroon. The conversation focuses on the impact of conflict in the Strait of Hormuz on global trade, U.S.-China trade relations, WTO reform, and the future of tariffs and rare earth supplies. The dialogue provides current insights into U.S. trade strategy, negotiation dynamics with China, and the geopolitical ripple effects shaping policy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Strait of Hormuz Crisis and Its Trade Impact

• U.S. Insulation from Immediate Effects

  • Greer emphasizes that the U.S. is generally “insulated from a lot of the supply chain effects” due to domestic and regional partners’ sourcing.
    • “For a lot of that, we have domestic sourcing. We have sourcing from our partners to the north and south of us and other places…We’re monitoring the situation.” (01:15)
  • Other countries, especially in Asia, are more seriously impacted as their supplies tighten.

• Timeline for Resolution

  • No artificial timelines are being set. Reference to U.S. military perspectives suggesting operations will last “weeks.”
    • “They talk about…operations in terms of weeks. We hope that’s the case.” (02:07)
  • Progress related to Iran’s capabilities and preventing nuclear weapons is ongoing.

2. U.S.-China Trade Dialogue

• Focus of Recent Meetings

  • Recent meeting with Chinese Minister of Commerce, Minister Wong, focused on preparing for an upcoming leaders summit and discussing the future of the WTO—not on the Hormuz crisis despite China’s economic stake.
    • “We were focused on preparing for the leaders meeting…talking about the WTO itself and the future of it, or potentially lack thereof, as the case may be.” (02:45)

• WTO Reform and U.S. Perspective

  • Greer points out the WTO’s inability to address structural imbalances and trade surpluses, emphasizing U.S.-proposed reforms.
    • “The WTO has never been able to address those things. And it won’t be going forward. It can barely address issues on its current agenda.” (03:04)
  • Notable mention of opposition from certain countries (Brazil, Turkey) to a closing package in recent reform efforts.

3. International Responsibility in the Strait of Hormuz

• Allies and China’s Role
  • Anne Marie asks if China, as the prime beneficiary of Iranian crude, should help secure the strait. Greer defers direct judgment but underlines it as a Chinese decision.
    • “It affects these other countries much more than it affects us…But it is clearly in the interest of the world community to make sure…that Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon.” (04:25)
  • Suggests broader global alignment on containing Iran’s threat is needed.

4. US-China-Tariff Dynamics & Trade Deficit

• Section 301 Tariffs and Reciprocal Actions

  • Current investigative process on Section 301 tariffs towards China is highlighted—paralleled by China launching its own investigations into U.S. companies.
    • “We were seeking stability…a level of tariff application on one side and a flow of rare earth minerals…Both sides want stability.” (06:07)
  • U.S. trade deficit with China has decreased by 30% in the last year; shipments from third countries also show the desired downward trend.

• Transshipment Concerns

  • Acknowledges issues with Chinese exports entering the U.S. via third countries but emphasizes the overall healthy direction of trade data.
    • “There’s always been an issue with transshipment…overall, our trade deficit is going down.” (06:45)

• Future of Tariffs

  • Greer withholds speculation on specific tariff levels pending investigation outcomes, but reaffirms the administration’s commitment to protecting U.S. producers and increasing production and wages.

5. Rare Earth Supplies and “Project Vault”

• Supply Chain Security Initiatives

  • The U.S. is making progress in rare earth stockpiling (“Project Vault”) and developing domestic mining and processing capabilities.
    • “We have new projects in the United States to mine, process and manufacture rare earths…working with our counterparts and our trading partners…to increase supply chain security.” (08:30)

• Upcoming U.S.-China Leaders' Meeting

  • Rare earths are “working fairly well” as an area of cooperation, with minor issues being addressed at the staff level.
    • “The process with the Chinese is working fairly well…if the presidents need to talk about it, they will. Our hope is we can manage a lot of it at the staff level.” (09:00)

6. Anticipated Outcomes from Beijing Leaders’ Meeting

• U.S.-China Board of Trade Proposal
  • Major anticipated deliverable: establishment of a U.S.-China Board of Trade for structured management of trade flows, emphasizing reciprocity and focusing agreements on less sensitive goods to sidestep national security issues.
    • “If we can formalize the mechanism…to make sure we can agree on things we are selling to each other…the Chinese want to be selling things to us and we’re willing to buy things…commodities that maybe the Chinese have that we don’t.” (09:51)

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Highlighted Quotes/Notable Moments

• On WTO Reform:

  • Greer: “The ability of the World Trade Organization to meet the needs of the moment…The WTO has never been able to address those things. And it won’t be going forward.” (03:04)

• On International Response to Hormuz:

  • Greer: “It is clearly in the interest of the world community to make sure…that Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon, Iran doesn’t empower its terror proxies…” (04:25)

• On Tariffs and Trade Deficit:

  • Greer: “The Chinese know that the United States is trying to control for our giant trade deficit…which went down by 30% last year, by the way.” (06:07)

• On U.S.-China Stability:

  • Greer: “Both sides want stability…I see a positive agenda with China going forward where we learn to manage our trade with each other.” (07:46)

• On Board of Trade Vision:

  • Greer: “We’ve been talking about a board of trade, a U.S.-China Board of Trade, which really will be a mechanism to help manage trade…to make sure that we…agree on things we are selling to each other.” (09:51)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 01:00–02:31 | Hormuz crisis and U.S. trade insulation | | 02:31–03:28 | China talks—WTO reform, leaders’ meeting prep | | 04:04–05:04 | Hormuz and China’s global responsibility | | 05:42–06:45 | U.S.-China Section 301 tariffs, trade deficit trends | | 07:32–08:55 | Rare earths strategy, Project Vault, trade stability | | 09:51–10:45 | Deliverables for Beijing: U.S.-China Board of Trade |

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Conclusion

Ambassador Jamieson Greer outlined a pragmatic, stability-driven approach to resolving current global trade disruptions and U.S.-China economic tensions. While major trade issues like the Strait of Hormuz and WTO reform remain complex, the U.S. administration projects confidence in supply chain resilience, domestic production, and ongoing diplomatic negotiations. The proposed U.S.-China Board of Trade signals a structured way forward, prioritizing mutual benefit and compartmentalization of sensitive issues.

Transcript

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the conflict in the Middle east whip soaring crude prices and creating uncertainty for global trade partners.

[Anne Marie]

Anne Marie joins us from Washington now with a special guest. Anne MARIE Good morning, John. That's right. An individual who just met with a number of the U.S. trade partners at a WTO meeting in Cameroon is Ambassador Jameson Greer, the United States Trade Representative. Ambassador Greer, good morning and thank you so much for joining me.

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

Good morning. Great to be here.

[Anne Marie]

So you just got back from meeting with a number of trade partners. And at the moment, global trade is upended by what's going on in the Strait of Hormuz. Did you have an update to give American trading partners about the flow of trade through that critical waterway?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

Well, right now I think the thing to understand is that the United States is generally insulated from a lot of the supply chain effects when it comes to, you know, direct commodities and things like that. For a lot of that, we have domestic sourcing. We have sourcing from our partners to the north and south of us and other places. But obviously we're aware that this has an impact and other, other in other countries, particularly in Asia, we know that their supplies are tight. And so we're watching that really closely. When I was meeting with all of them, this was not particularly high on their agenda of things to discuss with me because we were meeting for other reasons. But we're monitoring the situation. Given that the supplies of commodities coming out of the out of the Gulf can affect our trading partners.

[Anne Marie]

And it's not just crude. It's liquefied petroleum gas, which you need, especially in countries like India, to cook. It's fertilizer. Do you have a sense of a timeline?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

Well, you know, first of all, any kind of operation, you're focused on objectives and you don't want to set artificial timelines. When I hear from the secretary of state or the secretary of defense, they talk about, you know, operations in terms of weeks. We hope that's the case. The Trump administration has made a lot of headway in its objectives in Iran in terms of destroying ballistic missiles, destroying the navy and making progress to make sure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon.

[Anne Marie]

You met on the sidelines with your Chinese counterpart. China buys the lion's share of Iranian crude. We have seen China Chinese vessels given safe passage through the Strait. Did this become a focal point of that conversation?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

It did not. When I met with my counterpart, Minister Wong, the Ministry of Commerce Minister, this did not come up. We were focused on preparing for the leaders meeting, which will occur in mid May. We were talking about the WTO itself and the future of it, or potentially lack thereof, as the case may be.

[Anne Marie]

And so lack thereof, you think about getting out?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

Well, I wouldn't say that. I would just say that the ability of the World Trade Organization to meet the needs of the moment, addressing structural imbalances, currency issues, you know, huge export driven surpluses by other countries. The WTO has never been able to address those things. And it won't be going forward. It can barely address issues on its current agenda.

[Anne Marie]

So potentially you want a revamp of the wto? Is that what you're calling for?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

I will tell you that we have called for reform. The Trump administration has put in many proposals, concrete proposals about reform, about how to graduate countries, countries to take on more obligations as they become more developed. We've talked about making sure that countries can adjust their tariff schedules to account for national core interests. And we put forward a reform plan together with a bunch of trading partners at a recent meeting in Cameroon. And there was near consensus on this. Countries like Brazil and Turkey eventually opposed the closing package, which is unfortunate, but it's also kind of exhibit A of how the WTO is unable to address these core challenges.

[Anne Marie]

Back to the strait. In your conversation with your Chinese counterpart, the president has been pretty direct to European allies. If you want the strait to open, you should also help us. Send vessels and a minesweeper. Send your navy. If China is the one that's benefiting the most in terms of they're the ones that for years have been supporting this brutal regime, should they also not be on the hook to reopen the strait?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

Well, listen, this is a decision for China and I'll obviously let the President and Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense decide how they're going to align with other countries in reacting to to the Strait of Hormuz closing again. It affects these other countries much more than it affects us. Other countries have been working with Iran to figure out arrangements to get out oil, gas, fertilizer and all these other things. But it is clearly in the interest of the world community to make sure, not only to make sure that the strait is open, but to make sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. Iran doesn't empower its terror proxies in the region. The world would be much safer if the world was aligned on taking care of the Iran issue.

[Anne Marie]

As you prepare for this trip, there's a lot of reporting that China, like Russia, is helping Iran, even when it comes to not just supply chains, but targeting US Troops. Is this going to be on the agenda when the president meets? Is this even potentially a reason why the trip could maybe get postponed?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

In past meetings between the presidents, they've always talked about conflicts and hotspots. In the past, they've talked about Ukraine and Russia. They've talked about Iran. I assume that they'll talk about these things again. With respect to your question, is there going to be a delay in the meeting? I haven't heard talk about that neither internally. I didn't hear that from my Chinese counterpart when I talked to him last week.

[Anne Marie]

When it comes to the tariffs right now, there are Section 301 tariffs that you're looking into when it comes to China, We've seen China actually have their own announcement that they're going to investigate US Companies. This tit for tat we might see in the trade between Beijing and Washington back to where we were almost what it feels like a year ago. Do you think that's going to hinder the US from getting back to the 20% level they were at before IBER was struck down?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

I don't think so. When you look back to the Busan agreements, the agreements we achieved with the Chinese last year, we were seeking stability. We were seeking to achieve, you know, achieve a level of tariff application on one side and a flow of rare earth minerals and things from the other side. Both sides want stability. Both sides want to see continuity. The Chinese know that the United States is trying to control for our giant trade deficit we've had with China for a long time, which went down by 30% last year, by the way. So I don't think it's going.

[Anne Marie]

But China's imports to other countries into the United went up, and then those countries are importing to the United States. Don't you have an issue with transshipment at the moment?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

So there's. There's always been an issue with transshipment. But when you look at our shipments from third countries outside of China since April, right, since Liberation Day, that deficit has gone down by 17%. So while there may be some trans shipment, overall, our trade deficit is going down. So down with China, it's going down with the rest of the world. It's going exactly the right production direction. At the same time, wages are going up in America, productivity is going up.

[Anne Marie]

Do you think you're going to get to the 20% level?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

Well, I can't prejudge the investigations. Right. It's section 301. We have to go through the legal process, we have to collect information. It's quite public, it's quite transparent. You know, we know what the nature of the deal is that we struck with the Chinese. So. So we will see. All I know is that the President for sure is going to keep protecting our economy, he's going to protect our producers, so we can continue to have increased production in the U.S. increased wages here.

[Anne Marie]

If China plays hardball, though, not just with their own investigations, but potentially bringing rare earths back into the foray. I know they have basically till October. There's a deal on the table potentially. Then would you look to maybe decrease the tariff level?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

Well, you know, from our perspective, we're looking for stability we're trying to achieve. We're trying to get the trade deficit reduced, we're trying to increase manufacturing in the United States and we're trying to increase real wages and all of that is happening. So we don't see a need to change our policy. The Chinese want stability, we want stability. I actually see a positive agenda with China going forward where we learn to manage our trade with each other, where we pick the kinds of things we want to be selling to each other, things that are mostly non sensitive to avoid some of the national security elements that prove challenging in negotiations. I see stability with China over the

[Anne Marie]

next year when it comes to this extension on rare earths. Are you going to need one in October or do you think the United States is in a place where we don't need an extension?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

Well, we've, we've made a lot of progress. We have a few months, so I think we'll assess that down the road. You know, we have Project Vault where we're stockpiling a lot of critical minerals and rare earths. We have new projects in the United States to mine, process and manufacture rare earths, including permanent magnets that we need for different motors. We're working with our counterparts and our trading partners, Australia, the eu, Japan, Mexico, to find projects we can do together to increase supply chain security.

[Anne Marie]

How much will rare earths be on the table of this discussion with the President and Xi Jinping in May.

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

So when we met in Paris with our Chinese counterparts a couple of weeks ago, we talked about rare earths. The process with the Chinese is working fairly well. There are a few things here and there where we highlighted that we didn't feel like we were getting rare earths in a timely fashion. And we highlighted that to our partners. They took note of that and have it under consideration. So the presidents will talk about it if they need to. Our hope and expectation is that we're able to manage a lot of it between now and then at the staff level.

[Anne Marie]

Do you think you're going to have to meet your counterparts again before the big leader meeting in Beijing?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

I don't think we're going to need to do that. Particularly when we were in Paris, we reached general agreement on the types of outcomes we want for the leaders meeting. And right now our deputies and our staff are are in regular communication to try to land all those outcomes.

[Anne Marie]

Can you give us any sense of what the main deliverables are going to be in Beijing?

[Ambassador Jameson Greer]

I think that one of them and people, there's been a little bit of coverage on this. We've been talking about a board of trade, a US China Board of Trade, which really will be a mechanism to help manage trade over the past 10 years or so as the United States has tried to eliminate its trade deficit with China, figure out its export control situation. If we can formalize the mechanism a little bit to make sure that we are, we can agree on things we are selling to each other for the US we want to be selling Boeings, we want to be selling medical devices, pharmaceuticals, ag products, things like that. You know, the Chinese want to be selling things to us and we're willing to buy things like, you know, low tech consumer goods and things like that, certain commodities that maybe the Chinese have that we don't. And so coming, you know, establishing that type of mechanism at the leaders meeting and then going through a process of figuring out how to optimize trade with each other. That's going to be a big deliverable.

[Anne Marie]

Ambassador Guerrero, thank you so much for your time this morning.

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