Howard Lutnick, a rich donor from President Trump who was chosen to lead the Commerce department, defended Mr Trump's plans to impose broad rates and said that he would take a difficult attitude to technology to China on Wednesday.
If confirmed, Mr. Lutnick would lead to trade policy and supervise a broad portfolio of government programs that touches on business promotion, technology and science. He told the legislators that he preferred “across the board” rates that would affect entire countries instead of specific products to match America's trade relations.
He said that although he believed that rates about China should “be the highest,” governments in Europe, Japan and South Korea have also used the United States on Trade. He said that American farmers, cattle farmers and fishermen 'all over the world were treated with a lack of respect'.
“We need that lack of respect to end, and I think rates are a way to create reciprocity, to be treated fairly, to be treated in the right way,” he said. Mr Lutnick also stated that rates would not cause inflation, although many economists say that rates are often partially passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
Asked about the recent progress of China in artificial intelligence, Mr Lutnick said he would take a difficult attitude on the supervision of the department of technological sales to China and support the American export controls with the threat of rates. He said that the recent AI technology released by the Chinese start-up Deepseek was supported by the open platform of Meta and Chips sold by the American company Nvidia.
“We have to stop helping them,” he said about China and added: “I'm going to be very strong at that.”
A meta spokesperson said there were reports that a variety of AI models were used to build the deep model, and that the open source AI platform of Meta, Llama, was not one of them.
Mr Lutnick also tried to run a careful line when it came to a $ 50 billion program created by the Congress in 2022 to bring the production of semiconductors from Asia to the United States. Mr. Lutnick would play a key role in the supervision of that program, which was founded by the program, known as the Chips Act.
Mr. Trump recently has been critical of the program and described it as a waste of money, although its origin was in the Trump government. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company agreed to build a chip factory in the United States in 2020 after offering the promise of subsidies from Trump officials. The legislators later expanded those subsidies to include other companies. Last year, TSMC received $ 6.6 billion in subsidies through the BIDEN administration.
Mr. Trump spoke with Republican legislators on Monday evening and said that the government could have returned companies to the United States by threatening them with rates instead of giving them subsidies.
“We want them to come back, and we don't want to give them billions of dollars such as this ridiculous program that Biden has,” said the president. “They already have billions of dollars. They have nothing but money, Joe. “
Mr Lutnick said in Wednesday's hearing that he supported chip production in America and described the chip program as 'necessary and important'. But he also said repeatedly that he would 'study' the program and refused to fully commit to honor legal contracts that companies have already completed and signed with the government.
“I can't say that I can honor something that I have not read,” he said about the contracts.
As head of the Commerce department, Mr. Lutnick would be in charge of government programs with enormous influence on the business and technological sectors.
The Commerce department – which has 51,000 employees and a budget of $ 11 billion – is responsible for promoting business interests abroad, limiting technology exports to protect national security and to provide subsidies to the semiconductor and Broadband industry. It also supervises the American census, patents, weather forecast, fishing and the development of global technological standards, in addition to other functions.
Mr. Trump also said that Mr Lutnick would lead the trade policy of the administration broader, including the supervision of the office of the American trade representative, a small agency with fewer than 250 employees negotiating trade agreements and certain rates. The agency reports technically directly to the president, as well as to the congress.
Mr Lutnick has argued in favor of Mr Trump's economic vision and said that the mix of lower corporation tax, fewer regulations, more oil production and higher rates will help to increase the US economy. Mr. Lutnick is also part of Mr Trump's efforts to eliminate parts of the federal government, and described himself as the founding force behind the so -called Ministry of Government Efficiency, a cost -saving effort.
An old donor from Mr. Trump, Mr. Lutnick became more recently an important economic adviser and helped his transition team in Leiden. Mr. Lutnick is the Chief Executive and chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Street Brokerage, and holds leadership positions at BGC, another brokerage, and Newmark Group, a commercial real estate company. Mr. Lutnick has promised to lay down the functions if confirmed.
Legislers and vice -president JD Vance – who appeared a short appearance during the hearing – promoted the personal story of Mr Lutnick and described him as someone who had achieved every success despite adversity. Mr. Lutnick lost his two parents by the time he was 18 and became chairman of Cantor at only 35. A resident of Long Island, he lost his brother and most of the employees of Cantor Fitzgerald in the attack of 11 September on the World Trade Center.
Through Cantor and his other companies, Mr. Lutnick took over in a stunning range of companies and executive functions. Financial disclosures submitted by Mr Lutnick last week showed that he had executive positions or had previously had in more than 800 companies and had at least $ 800 million in assets.
For Mr Trump and his supporters, the wealth and business success of Mr Lutnick strong qualifications for the role of trade secretary are. But Democrats see Mr. Lutnick's financial ties with more skepticism and say they can ask questions about his ability to ask the interests of the American people for those of themselves and former business partners. During the hearing they asked Mr Lutnick about his financial ties, in particular Cantor Fitzgerald's investments in a cryptocurrency company called Tether.
In a letter addressed to Mr Lutnick on Monday, senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat van Massachusetts, Tether 'called a well -known facilitator of criminal activities described as' Outlaws' favorite cryptocurrency, saying that the Tool had funded Terroristic, Terroristic Groups and the North Korean nuclear weapon program.
The connections with Tether “raise important questions about your own personal judgment and the conflicts of interest that you will have if you are confirmed as secretary of the trade,” Mrs Warren wrote to Mr Lutnick.
During his hearing, Mr. Lutnick Some misconduct from Cantor of Tether and said it was as “blaming Apple because criminals use apple telephones.”
“It's just a product,” he said. “We don't choose the American treasury because criminals use dollars.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat van Minnesota, also asked Mr Lutnick about his business ties with Greenland. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Mr Lutnick has financial interests in the mining industry in Greenland, via Cantor Fitzgerald. Cantor has invested in a company called Critical Metals Corp, which already presented minerals and minerals in Greenland in 2026.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly proposed to buy Greenland, which is an autonomous area within the Kingdom of Demark. The governments of both Denmark and Greenland say that the territory is not for sale.
