When Greer was sworn in for his new role, he promised to tackle the trade deficit, work to correct unfair trade practices and open new markets for U.S. goods and services. (Rod Lamkey Jr./Associated Press)
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has delivered to Congress a trade policy brief on behalf of the White House aimed at centering the economy on production of more American products.
Those include services, intellectual property, manufactured items and agricultural goods.
He recently spelled out President Donald Trump’s trade focus areas in a five-page document called “The President’s 2025 Trade Policy Agenda.” The document expands on what Trump outlined in his Jan. 20 “America First Trade Policy Presidential Memorandum.”
“The United States faces unprecedented economic and national security challenges,” Greer noted in a March 3 statement. “Today’s Trade Agenda lays out the thinking and vision that undergird that plan. The current moment demands action to put America First on trade, and the Trade Agenda explains the importance of President Trump’s trade policy to American workers and businesses.”
President Trump’s 2025 Trade Policy Agenda
Specific to trade, the agenda directs the U.S. Trade Representative to “chart a new course for any trade agreements to ensure they help raise wages and grow our industrial base.” In the course of that action, the agency will review existing trade agreements to ensure those pacts are in line with American interests.
Furthermore, the agency will start a public consultation process on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to evaluate how the trilateral agreement impacts American workers, farmers, ranchers, service providers and other businesses. The USMCA is up for mandatory review in July 2026. The agreement replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement during Trump’s last administration.
“USTR will also identify opportunities for bilateral or sector-specific plurilateral agreements that might be negotiated to open new market access for U.S. exports and reorient the trading system to promote U.S. competitiveness,” the document stated. Congress requires the U.S. Trade Representative to submit the President’s Trade Policy Agenda and Annual Report each year by March 1.
The new agenda noted that the United States will act “to create the leverage needed to rebalance our trading relations and to re-shore production, including, but not limited to, through the use of tariffs. This will raise wages and promote a strong national defense.”
When Greer was sworn in for his new role, he promised to tackle the trade deficit, work to correct unfair trade practices, open new markets for U.S. goods and services and “restore America’s ability to become a country of producers.”
Trump’s America First Trade Policy tasked the U.S. Trade Representative with several action items. Among them, Greer must identify countries that violate fair trade principles with the United States and discuss possible remedies with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Peter Navarro as senior counselor for Trade and Manufacturing. Led by the Commerce Department, the three agency heads must “investigate the causes of our country’s large and persistent annual trade deficits in goods, as well as the economic and national security implications and risks resulting from such deficits, and recommend appropriate measures, such as a global supplemental tariff or other policies, to remedy such deficits.”
Other mandates for Greer include assessing “import adjustment measures” on steel and aluminum and delving into trade policies and activities with China.
According to the new Trade Policy Agenda, China is “the single biggest source of our country’s large and persistent trade deficit and a unique economic challenge.” It noted that in Trump’s first term as president he negotiated a “historic and enforceable” U.S.-China economic and trade agreement known as the Phase One Agreement, but lamented that “there has been no action taken to enforce the agreement where China has not lived up to its commitments.” Consequently, China’s compliance will be assessed during Trump’s current term in office, Greer said.
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Meanwhile, on March 12, Greer reacted to European Union retaliatory tariffs on the United States. “For years, the European Union has opposed the United States’ efforts to reindustrialize. The EU has rejected attempts under successive U.S. administrations to cooperate effectively on dealing with global excess capacity on steel, aluminum, and other sectors, employing measures that are too little and too late,” he stated. “The EU’s punitive action completely disregards the national security imperatives of the United States — and indeed international security — and is yet another indicator that the EU’s trade and economic policies are out of step with reality.”
