Washington, Feb 23 (IANS) US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has sought to calm global nerves after the Supreme Court struck down a key plank of President Donald Trump’s tariff regime, telling allies and trading partners that existing agreements remain safe and that Washington’s trade policy “hasn’t changed” despite a shift in legal tools.

In an interview to a top US television channel on Sunday, Greer signalled that while the Trump administration is pivoting from emergency powers to other statutory authorities, the substance of US trade strategy will endure.

“The policy hasn’t changed, just the tools have changed,” he said, underlining that the White House expects continuity even as it transitions to Section 122 tariffs and prepares additional investigations under Section 301 and other provisions.

Greer confirmed he has been in direct contact with major partners following the apex court’s court judgment and President Trump’s decision to impose a 15 per cent global tariff under Section 122.

“I spoke with my counterpart from the European Union this weekend,” he said.

“I spoke to my counterparts in other countries.”

South Korea and the European Union convened emergency meetings with US government officials in Washington.

Greer said such consultations were “totally normal” but insisted that the underlying trade deals were not contingent on the outcome of the litigation.

“The deals were not premised on whether or not the… emergency tariff litigation would rise or fall,” he added.

“I’ve been telling them for a year whether this case, whether we won or lost, we were going to have tariffs. The President’s policy was going to continue.”

Greer stressed that no US ally had formally withdrawn from trade agreements.

“I haven’t heard anyone yet come to me and say, the deal’s off,” he said.

“They want to see how this plays out. I’m in active conversation with them on it.”

While acknowledging that the US administration no longer enjoys “the same flexibility that International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) gave us,” Greer said, adding that the Congress has already delegated “enormous tariff-setting authority” to the President under other statutes.

“Congress has already put out statutes allowing the President to impose tariffs,” he said.

“We’re not going to stop our programme. We’ll just use the Congressional authorities they’ve extended already for now.”

On the decision to raise the Section 122 global tariff from 10 per cent to the maximum 15 per cent, Greer said the strategy itself remained intact.

“The strategy didn’t change, because the problem remains the same,” he added, citing what he described as “a huge, huge unfairness, huge disparity, huge imbalance between the United States and its trading partners”.

“Although Section 122 tariffs expire after five months, unless extended,” Greer said the US administration expects investigations launched during that period to provide a bridge.

“Yeah, that’s one way to put it,” he added, when asked whether new probes would “pick up where they left off”.

Greer defended President Trump’s remarks that foreign interests were involved in efforts to overturn the tariffs, citing foreign companies that participated in litigation.

“It’s foreign companies that are benefiting from the tariffs being struck down,” he said.

–IANS

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