Compliance with the law. That is no small thing. And underlined the fact that during this campaign, we saw this time and again, general flynn was leading the chance of lock her up during the campaign and now hes being accused not just by democrats on the House Oversight committee and up on capitol hill but by fellow republicans that he was not in compliance with the law. I suspect that will come up in the briefing. At this point, the white house is offering no further comment than we dont have those documents to provide to the committee at this point which is not a response that will work for the committee for very long. Let me follow up on that. The white house is saying we dont have the documents and this is where general flynn worked for a time. And theyre referring people to the relevant agencies. What are those agencies . Reporter my guess is it would be the Defense Intelligence agency, the department of defense. If he did brief the Intelligence Agency as his attorney is saying at this point, there should be some record or documentation of that. But, of course, we heard from the staffer on the Oversight Committee and the Oversight Committee chairman, jason chaffetz, was saying as much to reporters today, no, we dont have any evidence of that. And so this is obviously another one of those drips, drips, drips for the white house on this issue of russia, the story that doesnt want to go away. Jim, stay with me. Let me bring my panel in. Gloria borger, lets step back three steps. The question into why this speech and the money and this Key Information being wellheld wh withheld, the question to me is why would someone withhold this . Would one withhold because he knows that there would be questions into the Trump Associates during the campaign and ties to russia or was this simply an oops . Well, i doubt that it was simply an oops. I think it may well reflect the fact that he didnt get the clearance, as youve been discussing before, to go over and participate in this conversation or to get paid for it. These things are supposed to be cleared even if youre no longer a member of the dia or no longer a member of the Intelligence Community and working for the government. These things do need to be cleared. And if in fact it wasnt cleared, then you have to ask the question why didnt he get it cleared and that may explain why it wasnt on his disclosure form. I should also point out that these disclosure forms are very important when people are getting top clearances and we also know, for example, that jared kushner, the president s soninlaw, didnt disclose his meetings with russians and other officials of other governments on his original disclosure form and that now he is trueing to work that out. He says it was an oversight, it was a mistake and that now hes trying to work that out and has interim clearance before he gets his official clearance. Kushner says it was sloppiness and his own part. He admits it was a mistake. Id like to hear what Michael Flynn says because his era is way more egregious because hes received money and never should have been doing that without clearance. Its interesting, you use the word sloppiness. Susan hennessey, do you see it as sloppiness, carelessness, how do you view this . There are two possibilities here. One is that the white house was aware that he lied on his National Security form. Thats a felony. That would be a big deal if they had ignored that. The other part is that the white house wasnt aware that he had lied on his form or he had accepted these payments. Considering that this is Public Information and reported shortly after the election that he had accepted these payments, that raises real questions, potentially even more troubling questions about how the white house secured their holdings where red flags were ignored. For people watching and trying to understand, why is it important for highlevel military leaders like general flynn here to disclose these types of payments from Foreign Governments . The emolument clause is part of the u. S. Constitution. Its about protecting National Security interests. Its central to basic constitutional principles. Okay. Tom rogin, what are your thoughts on this . The first issue here is if you look at the context of what is going on with the threestar general now without the paper trail that his people had suggested that would eventually vindicate him, theres an implication of that act and misconduct itself but also a serious concern, quite frankly, about what he was thinking in terms of the basic foundation that if russia gives you money, whether through a cutout or a thinly viewed cutout, they have leverage over you for the long term. That that is something that will come back. And so in the best case here, he was incredibly ignorant. Here we go, tom. Forgive me. Sean spicer. Good afternoon. Id like to start off today by having the secretary of commercial discuss the action that the Commerce Department took with respect to canadian softwood lumber. Its an action that talks about what were doing to make sure were fighting for our industries here at home. I want to bring up secretary wilbur ross. Thank you, sean. The action we took last night is actually the culmination of a couple of decades of disputes between the United States and canada. Whats provoked the disputes is the following. In an canada, the forests are od by the individual provinces and each of the provinces sets a charge for the loggers to use when theyre taking trees down. In the u. S. , its all open market. Its all market face prices. So subsidizing the lumber, the technical term being stumpage and they charge a subsidized low prize when the product hits the u. S. Border. We are determined preliminarily that those problems, while they vary from one province to another, is as high as 25 and, on average, are around 20 . So theyre quite material item, so the preliminary decision put out yesterday imposes those counter veiling duties on softwood lumber from canada. Those duties will be collected starting today and they will be collected on a retroactive basis going back 90 days because it was 90 days ago that the canadians were put on notice about this being an inappropriate process. What it amounts to is the following. There is roughly 15 billion worth of softwood lumber used in houses in this country and about 31. 5 of that comes from the canadians. So thats roughly 25 billion a year. A tariff on that is a billion dollars a year and the 90day feature adds 250,000 to that on a onetime basis. Softwood lumber, as i say, is the fundamental they use in Single Family houses. We do not think that the price of lumber will go up by anything like the 20 . But there may be some small increase in the price of lumber for the house. Youre talking such a small amount and the biggest part of home prices in even event is the land value, not the lumber value. Lumber is a small percentage of a total cost of a house. As you mentioned, its been a longrunning dispute subject of conversations between the Obama Administration and the Canadian Administration and is this a bargaining chip over that dispute going on there as well . This investigation had been under way before anything came up about milk. On the statutory basis, the last day we could have released the findings was today. The only thing we did was accelerate it one day. Do you see it as factoring in the judgments about how to respond or resolve these other trade disputes . Well, everything relates to Everything Else when youre trying to negotiate so i cant say theres no impact but what we have tried to do was to clear the air and get this dispute out of the way before the big nafta talks went on. That was not possible to achieve and thats why we went ahead and released the findings. [ inaudible ]. Are you comfortable with how this has worked out in terms of what it means for the overall relationship between our two countries . Well, they are a close ally. They are an important ally. They are generally a Good Neighbor. That doesnt mean they dont have to play by the rules. What do you mean by generally a Good Neighbor . Well, things like this, dumping lumber, thats not a Good Neighbor. Theres a feeling in the dairy industry that they are abrupt in the action that they took the week before. Each time the case was brought to an international court, canada won its case. What do you answer to this . I had nothing to do with the prior cases. Im confident that this case is a good case. The problem with dairy isnt that theyre dumping Dairy Products in the u. S. The problem is worse. They are prohibiting u. S. Dairy produces from selling their products in canada and as a practical matter and were looking into whether there are measures we can do to try to correct that. Have you heard from anybody in the canadian government . Has the Prime Minister reached out to President Trump to try to convince you to change your policy or the approach or work with you in any way . I havent heard of anybody asking us to change the approach. Youve seen the public statements that the canadians put out. As far as i know, that is their position. Im curious whether the lumber dispute or milk dispute points to the need to revisit or renegotiate nafta sooner rather than later . I think it does. If nafta were functioning properly, you wouldnt be having these kinds of very prickly and unfortunate events back to back. In that sense, nafta hasnt worked as well as it should. But this isnt covered by nafta. Thats one of the problems. Why not try to resolve this in a not so public fashion. What would you say to the layman who says why is President Trump messing with the canadians now . Its not a question of President Trump messing with the canadians. We believe they violated legitimate practice and to the degree were correct and that it should be corrected, just like steel dumping in china. Youre trying to make a point . We make it publicly all the time. Its just that theres been so much Public Interest ingendered by the two things, the dairy and london, that we felt it was good to clarify. Candidate trump said his focus would be on mexico in terms of trade. Now were hearing about these items related to canada. Can you tell me why the focus shifted up north . We had no way to know that the canadian dairy people would take the action that they did. Nor did we have any way to know that the lumber dispute wouldnt have been involved through negotiation. We tried. Then we went ahead and moved forward with this. Is the administration contemplating additional trade actions against canada . As far as i know, theres nothing immediate contemplated. Secretary ross, you said the substance of what youve done is very routine, like this has been done before. But they said what was really irregular is the way that you communicated it. Is this something youre trying to do as a pr thing to put nafta on notice . How should we read your very aggressive statement . Well, its not routine that 1 billion of counterveiling duties happen every day. Its happened before. Its not unprecedented. Well, we made the release the way that we made the release. Why did you make it that way . It seemed appropriate under the circumstances. Mr. Second teasecretary, tha you. [ inaudible ] under modi and now we have a new administration and same thing in india, modi has the same. So what is the future of the trade between the u. S. And india . Well, the u. S. Does not have a trade agreement with india at this point so its governed by the wto rules. Theres nothing in the actions weve taken that changes that. Following up on jim said, though, what do you tell the average consumer in the United States if their prices are going up . They didnt bargain for that . Well, i dont know what they bargained for but im sure what nobody in the United States bargained for is people dumping product. Its no different if you dump steel, aluminum, car, lumber, anything else. You said countervailing. These are countervailing duties. Could this actually complicate the efforts to get a good deal . Weve put the congress on notice quite a few weeks ago with our negotiation for nafta. Whats been stalled is getting the socalled Fast Track Authority approved by the congress. Now, with bob lighthouser hopefully coming to the senate for a full vote very shortly, that should cure one of the objections that some of the senators had. Namely, they were considered about formally having to reopen it. The catch 22 to that was that they were slow walking the information. It was a little bit of a circular thing. In any end, that appears to be in the making. Could this affect your ability to make a deal . This trade issue over lumber is not a brandnew issue. Its been around for a while. Mr. Secretary, the next upcoming meeting of the g7 is about a month away and the negotiations or talks with china about how to address north korea. Are you comfortable that the north korea calculus has not ham strung your ability to be as direct with china on matters like this and is the action with canada meant to signal to our owner western economic allies and partners that if they mess with the u. S. , they could face Something Like this. At the maralago readings, we agreed on a 100day program and were going back and forth with the chinese over that 100day program. So we shall see what comes from that. As to the action with lumber or, for that matter, with dairy with d canada, it has no relationship at all. It seems to me that the object of the 25 tariff on soft lumber coming out of canada is not to raise wood prices. Its to save and create american forest tree jobs and loggers who are losing their jobs right now as a result of the dumping. Has the administration do you know how many jobs are going to be saved by this tariff . Well, its quite a lot of board feet of lumber. Lumber sells for about 38 cents per foot. So if you take all of these large amounts, about 47 billion board feet of lumber consumed in the u. S. Market in a given year. Part of the reason i dont see that there would be a huge price differential coming in is this only affects 31. 5 of that output. The Competition Among the american producers remains the same. So this is not suddenly house prices are going to go up 10 to 15 . Thats funny. How many jobs will be created or saved as a result of stopping the i dont have an exact total but i can tell you its in quite a few states along the northern perimeter going all the way down into louisiana. So this affects quite a number of people and businesses. Youre getting bipartisan support on your softwood action. On behalf of the dairy industry as well. You appear to be laying the ground work here to congress that youre wanting to renegotiating nafta. Well, the president a couple months ago said he wanted to renegotiate nafta and its been stalled in the congress. Because to do it effectively, you really need to use the trade Promotion Authority. I think youre aware of the benefit that gives, which men it comes to the floor for vote, its an up or down vote. They cant amend the deal. It makes it much more probable of getting a deal approved. Thats the practical significance of it. So these very public actions that youre taking and being here in the briefing, is that sort of paving the way for promoting that authority . Well, we hope to get as soon as possible the trade Promotion Authority granted. Only congress can do that. We hope with the lighthauser confirmation, that will remove that i mpetiment. Do you favor a free trade event with india . Any trade events with india . Free trade for india. I dont believe theres been any discussions of late with india of a free trade agreement. But theres no inherent negative argument on our part. Youre going to do something similar with aluminum as you did with steel in terms of initiating investigations. Can you talk a little bit about that . Well, i think the right time to talk about executive orders is once theyve been issued. Mr. Secretary, this is a highprofile action. Theres a press net for similar action in the past. Is there a risk that this could provoke real tags on the part of the canadians and we could see a 2r5ids war snl. That would be a stimulatory for all of your readership but we dont think thats going to happen. So this is dairy and softwood . Yes. And. Dont see any retaliatory action on the part of canada . Im not aware of anything that weve violated so i dont know what they could do that would be a legitimate action. What about a border adjustment tax . Well, it would be better to address that question to who will be working on the tax adjustment. I would hope that the growth would over time get to be better than that. President obamas the only president in many, many, many that didnt have at least one year of 3 growth. And with all the initiatives that were doing, the Regulatory Reform, tax reform hopefully and unleashing energy, theres no reason we shouldnt be able to have that if not beat it. You mentioned power. Who is i just used that as a figure of speech. Who is dumping cars to the United States . I said it was a figure of speech. Mr. Secretary, what happened between the press conference with Prime Minister trudeau and the president said he would only be tweaking the relationship . First of all, this is not a president ial decision to do the softwood lumber. This was a decision that arose from a trade case that was under way so it was a normal decision. So i dont think it has anything to do with the personal relationship between mr. Trudeau and the president. Finally, if you or the president have any [ inaudible ] . Well, wto is a whole different subject matter. We doville some questions and some concerns about it. There wi