Being here. Any special welcome to the folks joining us on cspan. We are looking forward to a spirited debate this afternoon in our Panel Following opening remarks from secretary wilbur ross. And please and privilege to introduce the 30 night secretary of commerce, wilbur ross. As secretary he is the principal voice of business in the Trump Administration trying to ensure that u. S. Businesses have the tools they need to create jobs and pursue economic opportunity. He served as secretary since the beginning of the Administration February 2017. Hes got limited time with us today so ill be very brief in her introduction so we can get right to his talk. He will be leaving at the conclusion of his talk and the panel will ensue. Secretary ross is no stranger to commerce with over half century of experience in Investment Banking and private equity restructuring over 400 billion in assets across numerous industries. In serving as chairman or lead director of more than 100 companies in over 20 countries. He is also the only person elected to vote the private equity hall of fame and tournament knowledge and hall of fame. We are pleased to welcome him here today please join me in welcoming number secretary wilbur ross. [applause] thank you dean for that kind introduction. And thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Trump Administrations trade policy and how it fits into our longterm goals of the country. The Federalist Society has always advocated for informed debate and the commitment to our constitutional government. The overall goal of our administration fits perfectly within the federalist charter. Only by maintaining a strong and viable economy can americans live freely under the rule of law with guaranteed individual liberties and a separation of powers. Today thanks to policies focused on rebuilding american industry american jobs, American Communities and american prosperity we are turning the tide toward a far more prosperous and hopeful future. But you would never know it by listening to liberal politicians hellbent on impeaching the most successful president since Ronald Reagan nor to the left wing media desperate efforts to frighten americans into a recession. In fact, the u. S. Has the strongest economy of any major economy in the world. Our Unemployment Rate of 3. 5 percent is the lowest its been since 1969. Since the election of President TrumpUnited States has added 6. 4 million new jobs including 500,000 in the Manufacturing Sector alone. In 136,000 new jobs in the month of september itself. Income and wages are up, poverty is at the lowest level in almost 2 decades. The number of americans needing federal Food Assistance has fallen by more than 10 million from 44. 2 million in 2016 to 33. 7 million this year. Retail sales up by 4. 6 percent over the past 12 months. Interestingly, the u. S. Import price index fell by two percent over the past year despite the fears that people have had about the impact of tariffs. Last friday the president announced phase 1 agreement in principle with china. This would phase in 40 to 50 billion of agricultural purchases over a twoyear period, more than twice our prior annual peak sales. It would also address some of the issues regarding intellectual properties. The remaining issues, the remaining structural issues and their enforcement remain to be renegotiated. In return, the u. S. Has agreed not to raise tariffs from 25 to 30 on october 15. As a sign of good faith the chinese recently made substantial purchases of agriculture, especially soybeans and pork. I believe china came to the negotiations mainly because we imposed substantial tariffs on them. But also because of the personal relationship between President Trump and president xi, they naturally retaliated to the tariffs we put on but because they sell us more than four times as many goods as we sell them, a given amount of tariff action means that they will run out of goods before we do. Also, there economy is only 60 the size of ours. Therefore, a given amount of tariff product hurts them far more than it hurts us. Fear of tariffs also cause the eu recently to agree to buy more egg products from us and begin negotiations on other topics. Its the reason why japan agreed to buy more meat and why the koreans renegotiated corals. The tariffs are now having a direct impact on chinese producers. And perhaps more importantly, are accelerating the hollowing out of chinas supply chain. China already was suffering some manufacturing immigration because of rising costs. Companies have begun to move operations elsewhere. In Southeast Asia to africa and to north america. That will be hard to stop. Chinas problems with hong kong also hinders its economy and may further accelerate and exodus of foreign producers. Last week the Commerce Department added 28 chinese governmental and commercial organizations to the entity list. That list restricts the export of items used to target readers and other ethnic minorities. We also responded to chinas built in Road Initiative with our new North Pacific strategy. Last week i was in new delhi, bangalore, singapore, canberra and sydney to discuss with the Prime Minister and other ministers of the three countries our engagement with them and others in the endo pacific region. In november i will be in bangkok, jakarta, paranoia and possibly other cities in the region. Through the belt and Road Initiative china has invested in 117 nations and those nations account for two thirds of the worlds population. They are state owned enterprises uses chinese materials and chinese nationals to build projects. For little local content. If default occurred, they foreclose on the assets rather than renegotiating the loans. For example, in sri lanka china has already foreclosed the chinese built port and had been toda. It is also taken control of Natural Resources such as cobalt mining in the congo and hydrocarbons in venezuela. Belted road is also effectively a jobs program for china that eases some of the impact of tariffs on their domestic employment. By electing President Trump 2016 the American People instead demanded free, fair, and reciprocal trade. The section 232 tariffs imposed by the department of commerce are part of that strategy. Prior to the imposition of the 232 tariffs in march 2018 both the u. S. Aluminum and Steel Industries were on the verge of collapsing. Now utilization rates have improved noticeably and 13 billion of vial expenditures have been committed to expanded and modernized capacity. Including 1. 3 billion from an indian steel company. Now that our Corporate Tax system and Regulatory Environment are so business friendly, Foreign Companies are more eager than ever before to invest in our market. We have the largest Foreign Direct Investment stock of any nation totaling 4. 3 trillion. To foster rapid growth in fdi i and other commerce executives constantly speak to Business Leaders around the world and every june we host the select usa conference here in washington three day summit promoting Foreign Direct Investments. Last year this event attracted 3100 participants. We have also created a reselect usa initiative to encourage American Companies to reselect the United States as their domestic and export manufacturing hub. Last not least, the Trump Administration aggressively pursues bilateral trade deals. Weve signed an initial trade agreement with japan that opened that market to. [singing] flowers and should generate 7 billion in sales. Thats about 40 of the agricultural trade that we lost to chinese retaliation. The chinese the japanese trade pack also will facilitate 40 billion in bilateral trade between the u. S. And japan in digital services. This is close to nine percent of what we would have achieved from the Transpacific Partnership yet without the harmful tpp concessions that the u. S. Wouldve made to other countries ab a remarkable achievement since trade agreements normally take many years often more then a decade to execute for the record, the other two agreements are the career freetrade agreement and the u. S. Mexico Canada Agreement which is pending congressional approval. Let me conclude by talking about the situation in turkey. Yesterday President Trump announced two actions against turkey that involved the department of commerce. We are raising their steel tariffs back up to 50 to the current level of 25 turkey is the eighth largest steel producer in the world. And steel was about as largest export to the United States before the tariffs. Its exports of steel to the u. S. Surged 303 percent from 10,000 metric tons per month to 42,000 per month when we dropped the tariffs originally back to the 25 . The president also directed the department to seize work on the plan we had been developing with the turkish government to expand our bilateral trade from the current 20 billion annual total sees 100 billion over the next few years. Already 1700 u. S. Businesses operate in turkey. And in september i had traveled to istanbul and ankara vetting the detailed plan with leading turkish businesses and government officials. The three Major Business associations there all endorsed it and one of them hosted a large celebratory dinner at tipper yanni on 42nd street in new york city during the Un General Assembly week in september. If achieved, the plan would increase turkish gdp by four percent and provide more than 150,000 direct jobs. The plan was always contingent on resolving the military differences between our two countries. The use now include the excursion into syria. It would be an excellent time for turkey to break into Global Supply chains in a big way as Many Companies are reassessing their earlier decisions to concentrate so much on china. But there will be a cost to the turkish economy if present military practices continue. Turkey will bear the cost of the war and forgo the potential trade benefits. In conclusion, the Trump Administration is focusing more intently on trade then any prior administration. There are some shortterm costs associated with this shift but they are much greater longterm potential and probable gains. Millions of americans have demanded that we put their interest first that is what we are doing and that is what we will continue to do. Thank you and i appreciate the Federalist Societys discussions about these issues. They are critical to the health and preservation of our democracy. Dq. [applause] [applause] thank you secretary ross. If we could call the panelists forward we will move onto the next phase of the program. a thank you so much secretary ross for joining us today. We are going to begin our panel we will hear opening remarks from each panelist in turn moving right down the lane. I will introduce them in the order they are going to speak, each will have about 5 to 8 minutes, strictly enforced for their opening remarks. Then we will have discussion and ultimately questions from the audience. Do have those in mind for when we get to that portion of the program. Ron kass is our first speaker he was dean of narratives at Boston University school of law is also the former vice chairman and commissioner of the u. S. International trade commission. He is currently chairman of the center for rule of law and president of kass and associates. There he is an arbitrator or mediator for commercial international and intellectual Property Rights disputes. He also interestingly has been appointed 6c president ial appointments spanning Ronald Reagan to barack obama which i secretly think was a ploy for him to justify getting a Bigger Office with wall space to hang all the connections. We will hear knox from donald cameron, abwith International Trade practice. Hes got over three decades of experience representing multinational businesses, foreign government, Foreign Trade associations and u. S. Importers. Hes that particular experience defending clients and Industry Sectors that are politically sensitive. We welcome him today. Lastly we will hear from jeffrey kessler, he was confirmed unanimously that the same accident on april third 2019 so hes been with the secretary for quite a while he serves as assistant secretary of commerce for enforcement and compliance. With the goal of promoting u. S. Jobs and economic growth. Prior to serving at commerce he was an International Trade attorney in private practice litigating several precedentsetting wto cases among other things. With that, 5 to 8 minutes for each of you. Dean cass. Thank you very much. I actually thought we were here today to talk about your bestselling book. Dean has recently published a book im envious my books are what my wife calls academic books. She says once he put them down you just cant pick them back up again. [laughter] i urge you to look at deans book instead. Im going to start first with a small story from the pregps age about the Great American philosopher yogi berra. Mr. Barrow was in his apartment in new york, not at cipriani and was cooking and started agrees fire in his kitchen he called the fire department, told them he had a grease fire in his kitchen and needed them to come put it out the person taking the call with the fire station said we will be there as soon as we can mr. Barrow but can you tell us how to get there. Yogis response was, what happened to those little red trucks used to have. There are times when there are certain things that are quite obvious but not always obvious to everyone else. I am a proponent of open trade. Trade is a source of competition, to competition is generally good. Obviously its not good for everyone its not good for somebody competing with me. But or not good for me to have extra competition but competition generally promotes getting more things to more people at better prices and with better quality. Having an opportunity to have trade and trade on terms that open economies one to another is generally something to be supported. But competition takes place in other spheres as well. One sphere that i particularly focused on is the National Security sphere. We are competing with other players in the world not just to get our products into their country and get the products we want from their countries. We are also competing on various military and security dimensions and in that regard i want to say that i regard everything that is being done by the administration as generally supporting trade but with a special focus on china. I think that focus is appropriate because china has special interests in the National Security sphere that we must be aware of. China has a lot of state run parts of its economy it is opening the economy more it is allowing more Free Enterprise but it has also maintained a lot of state control through investment and personnel. There are more than 150,000 state owned enterprises in china and many other enterprises in china that have state investment and state control direct and indirect. Of those enterprises. We have to be aware that this affects a lot of products that come into the u. S. Particularly in the information and Communications Technology sector. Theres a lot of discussion in the United States about walc and cte as potential threats to american National Security but the problem is actually much broader than that a lot of products from companies that we all know and many of us have purchased from including gopro and one elbow and wag smart and many other Chinese Brands are products that have been found to have backdoors in their software or flaws in the construction that allow security threats to be maintained and have chinese espionage and Cyber Espionage elements make use of those opportunities. Those are things that i believe the department should look at through the section 232 process which is a process that allows us to take considerations of National Security into account when we are making our decisions on what imports are appropriate and the United States. The great majority of products are products that are outside the space they are products that involve the sort of technologies that are relatively easily evaluated. A lot of complex products a lot of us carry around cell phones that have Computing Power far greater than the computers we sent people to the moon with.