During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) asked President Trump's nominee to be Deputy United States Trade Representative, Bryan Switzer about the tourism industry.
00:00Thank you, Senator Hassan. Senator Cortez Mastel.
00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome. Congratulations to the nominees, and welcome to your family members.
00:11Mr. Schweitzer, I want to start with you.
00:13As a Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, you would be charged with overseeing U.S. engagement and negotiation for trade in services.
00:21I'm curious if you know what is the number one U.S. services export.
00:28Tourism, I believe.
00:29That's a great answer, because it is. It's travel and tourism.
00:32And according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, travel and tourism is the largest service export for the United States,
00:39accounting for almost 20% of American services exports and 10% of all exports in 2024.
00:46In 2024, travel and tourism contributed $2.9 trillion.
00:51I mean, $2.9 trillion to the United States economy,
00:54and it supports more than 15 million American jobs.
00:59As a Deputy at USTR, what would you do to ensure that President Trump's blanket trade war on our allies, like Canada,
01:09does not cause further damage to America's travel and tourism industry,
01:13including the 300,000 Nevada jobs that this industry supports?
01:19Well, thank you for the question, Senator.
01:22Tourism is an important industry.
01:23The service industries are critically important for us.
01:26Commerce actually runs our sort of tourism promotion policy,
01:31so I recommend sort of reaching out to the Commerce Department.
01:34You don't have to lecture me on what Commerce does.
01:36I know what it does.
01:37And let me just say, I was just in Canada with my colleague, Senator Hassan.
01:41The impact that the tariffs have had on travel and tourism in this country is documented,
01:48it's legitimate, and that's in your bailiwick.
01:51And I need somebody that is going to be an advocate for addressing the impact that travel and tourism
01:58and the decrease in numbers and the negativity it is causing to our U.S. economy
02:03to talk about how the tariffs are impacting trade.
02:08So my question to you is, what are you going to do about it?
02:11Senator, I can commit that I will, you know, learn as much as I can about the specifics of tourism in your state,
02:19how we can further encourage tourism to all over the United States,
02:24to the extent that any policy is impacting that, whatever that policy might be.
02:30Are you familiar with Brand USA?
02:32Yes, I am.
02:32Great.
02:33So you're familiar with the travel and tourism policies and the programs that we have set up for this country.
02:38It's not just Nevada.
02:39It's for this country.
02:40I hope you will be an advocate.
02:41I look forward to working with you and having you develop a strategy
02:45to really talk about what the impact these tariffs are having on our trade, travel, and tourism in this country.
02:52It's not just about Nevada, but we are seeing a direct impact because of it.
02:56So we need to work together.
02:58I only have so much time.
02:59Let me jump to one other issue.
03:02Mr. Schweitzer, in recent days, the administration has announced trade deals with several countries.
03:08Neither Congress nor the public has seen actually the text of most of these agreements.
03:14And what little has been issued by USTR and the White House has been honestly questioned
03:20or openly refuted by the countries we have actually claimed we have reached deals with.
03:25And so, Mr. Schweitzer, in your opinion, what is the value in a trade agreement that is not legally binding,
03:33does not come through Congress, has no written enforcement mechanism, and can be unilaterally violated at will?
03:43Thank you for the question.
03:44I think there's a huge value in my, you know, over 20 years experience, much of which working overseas in our embassies.
03:51My experience showed that when the president gets together, whatever president that is, with the prime minister or president of another country,
03:57and they set the policy direction.
03:59They tell not only the US government, but it's the other country's government officials who now know that this is what our bosses told us we are going to achieve.
04:08Many, and again, it can only speak what I know as much as you do.
04:13I'm not actually in USTR right now.
04:15I know what's in the public domain, so you know as much as I do.
04:19These agreements will be structured as executive agreements.
04:23We have a number of executive agreements.
04:26When I worked at the Department of State, we negotiated executive agreements on science and technology,
04:33on health, on climate, all sorts of things.
04:36None of those required congressional approval.
04:38Wherever these agreements require statutorily congressional approval, we will seek congressional approval.
04:45Ambassador DeGreer has committed toâ
04:47Do you think it's important that there is congressional approval?
04:50Wherever it's required, we will definitely follow the law, and we will do that.
04:55Good, because they're not doing it now.
04:56But I hope you use your voice and your commitment today to follow the law to make sure that that happens.
05:02My time is up.
05:03The rest of the questions I will submit for the record.
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