Howard Lutnick is Trump's nominee for Secretary of Commerce, and he will have a Senate nomination hearing on January 29. In anticipation of the hearing, I came up with some questions for Lutnick. Any Senators participating in the hearing are welcome to adopt these questions, or a variation thereof, as their own:
1. How do you see the Commerce Department's role in U.S. trade policy in relation to the role of the U.S. Trade Representative's Office? What is the scope of your mandate at Commerce in relation to the mandate of USTR?
2. One of the biggest Commerce Department responsibilities in trade policy is administering certain aspects of the anti-dumping/countervailing duty laws. In your view, are AD/CVDs intended to induce changes to unfair foreign trade practices such as subsidies? If that is their goal, have they been successful in achieving this?
3. The UK Trade Remedy Authority recently imposed anti-dumping duties on Suspension Poly(vinyl chloride) from the U.S. The duties range from 38.43% to 56.01%. How would you help U.S. exporters fight the anti-dumping duties imposed by foreign governments?
4. In a Section 232 investigation, the Commerce Department examines the effect of imports on national security. In a case before the U.S. Court of International Trade a few years ago that heard a constitutional challenge to Section 232, one of the CIT judges raised questions about the scope of the Section 232 statute, and asked whether the President could determine that jobs in the peanut butter industry were vital to national security, and on that basis restrict imports of peanut butter pursuant to Section 232. How broadly do you see the Section 232 statute? Could peanut butter imports -- and maybe jelly too -- be covered? Are there any limits to the scope?
5. If the U.S. invokes national security to restrict imports, do you worry that other governments will invoke national security to restrict U.S. exports?
6. In your view, would increasing the private and public savings rates in the U.S. help lower the trade deficit? If so, is increasing savings a policy you think the Trump administration should consider?
7. At the confirmation hearing for Scott Bessent, he mentioned optimal tariff theory. Do you have any views on the practical relevance of this theory? Can you point to any real world "optimal tariffs" that have affected the terms of trade to the benefit of the U.S. economy?