During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke about President Trump's tariffs on European allies.
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00:00Senator Redham. Thank you, Senator, and congratulations to all of you on your
00:04your nominations. Dr. Kapoor, I had good discussions with the Indian and
00:10Pakistani parliamentary delegations that were in Washington last week in the
00:16aftermath of the India-Pakistan crisis. As you know, President Trump and
00:24Secretary Rubio have taken credit for bringing about the ceasefire. As you
00:28probably already know, the Indian government has denied that the ceasefire
00:34resulted from American mediation, but regardless, there's a fragile ceasefire
00:39in place. Secretary Rubio said this on May 10th, and I'm quoting, I am pleased to
00:46announce the governments of India and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate
00:49ceasefire and to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site, unquote.
00:56So, Dr. Kapoor, if you are confirmed, what broad set of issues will you push
01:05India and Pakistan to discuss? Thank you, Senator, for the question. So, I'm not
01:12familiar with exactly what issues the Secretary had in mind when he when he
01:16talked about that. I think that as somebody from the outside looking in, it
01:22looked to me as if the administration and senior leadership in the administration,
01:28the Secretary, the Vice President, were actively involved in using their good
01:31offices to encourage de-escalation in the crisis. And I think that probably had a
01:36salutary effect. In the end, India and Pakistan have to decide for themselves, and
01:42did in this case, too, decided for themselves to de-escalate. And that will be the case. If I could, just
01:48because, you know, again, you'll be the Assistant Secretary of Confirmed, and I'm
01:51just quoting what the Secretary of State, your boss, said. He said that they
01:56would agree, they agreed to start talks on a broad set of issues. And you're
02:00saying you don't, you don't have any idea what the Secretary was talking about
02:03with respect to broad sets of issues? I don't know the issues that he had in
02:06mind. It wasn't part of the government at that time, so I wasn't privy to those
02:09discussions. Okay. Well, broad does imply, does it not, sort of a comprehensive range of
02:14issues between the two countries? It could. It seems it would. I'm just curious
02:22about where, where that is going. I have raised in the last couple years concerns
02:29about, you know, Pakistan's backsliding on, on democracy, also concerns about issues
02:36of crackdown on freedom of speech in India and Pakistan, and I will submit some
02:41questions for you, to the record, for you on those points. So, thank you. Mr. Puzder,
02:48I, I want to really pick up on Senator Barrasso's questions, because during the
02:54first administration, many of us worked with the administration to urge our
03:00European partners to de-risk their relationship with China, their economic
03:06relationship. We spent a lot of time urging them not to adopt Huawei technology and other
03:14issues, and that actually was continued, that policy during, during the Biden
03:18administration. But during this Trump administration, since the president called
03:24for, quote, liberation day tariffs, we've seen our European partners obviously express
03:32great concerns. And, you know, President von der Leyen, who was one of those who'd
03:40been advocating for de-risking from China, has talked about expanding trade and
03:47investment ties to China. She said not that long ago to her European colleagues,
03:54quote, I know many of you feel let down by our oldest ally. If you take on one of us, you
04:01take on all of us. So, my question to you is pretty straightforward. How do we convince our
04:09European partners to de-risk their economies from China, when we are putting their
04:14economies at risk through our trade, our tariff and other policies? How do we, how do we
04:19tell them, don't deal with China, but we're going to whack you with all these
04:24tariffs? Thank you, Senator. Again, as, as a follow-up to Senator Barrasso's question,
04:30that's very timely. The, the most important thing we need to do is reach a trade
04:35agreement with the European Union, and I know we are aggressively pursuing, reaching
04:39that agreement. While that agreement, while we're pursuing those negotiations, both
04:44sides are going to say things. We'll see what, how, what comes out in the, in the
04:48final wash, but I know from comments, and, and really only from things I've read,
04:53because again, I'm a citizen, I'm not read in on any of this, but reading what
04:57Trade Representative Greer has had to say, and also reading what President
05:00von der Leyen has been saying, and again, Trade Rep. Maro Sefcovic, there, there's
05:05great interest in reaching an agreement with the United States. There's very
05:07concerns, you know, there's bribery allegations with respect to China in
05:12Europe. There's concerns with their trade practices. There are concerns with dumping of
05:16products in Europe. So I, I believe that we can work in our, out an agreement with the
05:21European Union. I think it's in their interest and our interest, and I think
05:24they're pursuing it aggressively.
05:26Well, thank you. And Senator, just in, in closing, I was quoting from the President
05:31of the EU, and she also said, quote, our message is clear. Europe is reliable,
05:37predictable, and open for fair business, unquote, meaning, they will happily do
05:44business with anyone in the world, including very much China. And clearly, when
05:50she said they're reliable and predictable to the rest of the world, the message was
05:55the United States is not reliable and predictable. So, you got a lot of work to
05:58do, if you're confirmed. And I think that you've, I think, unfortunately, the Trump
06:04administration to date has made your job much harder. Thank you, Mr. Senator.