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from Canada and Mexico President Trump is defending the move despite the global
backlash he tweeted yesterday unfair trade practices can no longer be
tolerated and the US must be treated fairly going forward I'm joined right
now by a member of his administration Peter Navarro is the White House
director of trade policy Peter it's good to see this morning thanks so much for
joining us good morning areia so what's your
reaction to what we've heard this morning and this weekend from Canada
France Germany the UK Italy and Japan who all collectively issued a joint
statement excluding the u.s. conveying their unanimous concern and
disappointment on these tariffs are you expecting dollar-for-dollar retaliation
I'm not worried about reaction what we have here is President Donald J Trump
taking an action that he promised on the campaign trail back in June of 2016
to defend our aluminum and steel industries from going out of business
and extinction as the president has said we need aluminum steel industries if
we're going to have a country and the problem we have maria is that we got 20
countries including all of those countries you mentioned flooding our
markets with steel putting 50,000 steel workers out of business in the last
decade we have 15 countries flooding our markets with aluminum driving that
industry to near distinction and all we're doing here all we're doing here
all the president is doing is defending this country's national security
sovereignty and economic security from the flood of imports what we expect is
our allies friends partners to understand two things one that we have
the right to do that in the interest of national security and two they need to
look in the mirror at their own unfair trade practices for example Europe if we
try to sell a car over there Europe charges us a high VAT tax and a 10%
tariff they want to sell it here it's when you give them a two point five
percent tariff that's not fair Canada just can't it just kicks us kicks us
kicks us on lumber and puts people out of work in Maine they kick us on dairy
puts people out of work in Wisconsin so these are
there are allies there we engaged strategically with them but at the end
of the day this is a trade dispute and the president is going to defend this
country he stands for American workers and he's standing up for them now those
those American workers are also wondering why they're seeing joblessness
why they're seeing an impact to the very states that voted for Donald Trump for
this last election are you worried that the very areas that this president is
targeting aluminum and steel are going to be the states that actually see
higher prices and perhaps job losses so in light of Friday's jobs report which
the New York Times apparently ran out of superlatives describing it's it's the
the height of spin to suggest it could be any unemployment look there's been
seven times seven times since 1970 since the unemployment rate has been reported
under four percent and the last two quarters was for this this presidency we
have a disproportionate amount the new jobs being created in manufacturing
we have investment off-the-charts this economy is so strong that nobody should
be worried about any of the spin that anybody's saying this is a story that's
truly remarkable and Donald J Trump has brought in tax cuts deregulation and
trade policies that are working for the American working people and guess what
on Friday they opened a 1.5 billion dollar groundbreaking aluminum rolling
mill in Ashland Kentucky why is that important it's the heart of Appalachia
and Appalachia is the heart of poverty in America and guess what the starting
salary at that plant is going to be $65,000 in a community where the average
median household income is $44,000 well below the national average
oh no president no president has fought the war on poverty better than Donald J
Trump african-american employment and Hispanic employment is at record lows so
all this idea about people worried about losing their jobs not going to happen
because we haven't seen the impact of these tariffs yep that's the precisely
why I bring up this point I mean I recognize what the president and the
administration has done in terms of triggering economic growth animal
spirits once again the Atlanta Federal Reserve just said that we're looking at
four point seven percent growth for the second quarter so things are good but
the point is is once you actually see these higher tariffs and these countries
our allies by the way fight back and raise their tariffs that's only going to
increase prices is it not it's going to force producers to actually increase
their prices and ultimately fall on the consumer so how much of a threat are
these taxes going to have in terms of cutting into economic growth and the
very strong growth that we've seen so I guess I guess my point here would be
that we've already seen the impacts of the tariffs remember we imposed tariffs
on solar panels and dishwashers many months ago the Donald J Trump had the
courage and vision to do that we haven't seen any of these dire consequences you
mentioned all we've seen is additional new investment in two industries which
are critical in terms of creating well-paying jobs for working men and
women in this country so what I would say to the American people is they
listen to this spin they have to understand that the spin out there
amongst the intelligencia and the elites is that we should keep doing what we've
been doing for the last 15 years and as Donald J Trump said in a tweet yesterday
we lose close to 800 billion a year and the trade war we lost that long ago
because the failure of the courage and leadership of people like Barack Obama
George Bush and Bill Clinton who by the way got us into both NAFTA and China
into the WTO which are the two worst deals in American history so what we
were doing a president he's just he's just amazing when he looks at the
chessboard I mean every single economic indicator consumer confidence up
business confidence up right fixed investment double what it was and trying
to understand what the impact is I want to get to China so you give me a moment
though but first on Canada before we move on to China Canada has already said
Justin Trudeau came out too we are going to match dollar-for-dollar
is this more about nafta or is this the same issue as the other countries
because you're making a national security issue here where's the national
security with Canada so the national security issue is not about Canada or
China or Turkey or any other country that sends us aluminum or steel national
security issue is a flood of imports from 20 countries that are putting our
aluminum of steel business businesses out of business and so the national
security in issue is basically us looking outward defending ourselves
against that flood of imports so that these industries can thrive and guess
what the day those tariffs were announced
Granite City Illinois this US Steel and his announced that plant would be
reopened hawesville Kentucky there was a plant that day century Illumina hundred
and fifty million dollars worth of new investment in modernization so all of
this is working this is not aimed at any of the countries that those tariffs are
put upon they're not aimed at those they're simply defending our industries
and and we just have to keep making that point and keep working with our allies
now and then after thing Bria it's very important there's no connection at all
none whatsoever between the actions taken on the tariffs and the NAFTA
negotiations they are two separate matters the NAFTA negotiations have been
going on for many months now and they're continuing there's hundreds of people on
all sides that sit around tables trying to work that out if there is a new NAFTA
deal will the president to remove these tariffs from Mexico in Canada then these
are two separate unrelated events and you treat it as such they're two
unrelated events and guess what there's only two things that are going to happen
with the NAFTA renegotiations right either we're going to get a deal
for the American people that basically reduces the trade deficit with Mexico on
and then allows us to build more factories here or we're going to leave
NAFTA the option of staying in the status quo won't hold and that's the
problem the status quo on trade whether it's with China with NAFTA with the
Europeans it just isn't working for the American
they beat us because they don't play fair they have higher tariffs than we do
higher non-tariff barriers right and president this president it takes
courage and vision to stand up to China I get that I want to ask you about China
because there here's the headline of the morning in terms of China I'm reading an
article right now and it says China says all trade progress is off if the US
imposes these tariffs are we willing to throw away the relationship that we have
with China to push tariffs and restrictions on the country well let's
look at the relationship we have with China we have a 371 billion dollar trade
deficit in goods which basically ships off 2 million manufacturing jobs to
China every year that's not so good we had general mattis talking about the
activity in the South China Sea with respect to China building up all there I
only they're artificial islands and of course the big issue that we're fighting
the president's fighting with ambassador light hyzer is this theft of our crown
jewels of technology they take our technology Marie everybody knows they
steal it but they also force the transfer of it
they evade our export controls and they're coming over here Chinese
state-owned enterprise coming over here with bags full of money and buying up
places like Silicon Valley so that's a relationship with China that
structurally needs to change we'd love to have a peaceful and friendly
relationship with China but we also are standing firm on the idea and the
president is the leader on this he was for two decades how far are you willing
to go Peter China wants to take its companies public on the floor of the New
York Stock Exchange are you gonna push back if they don't stop stealing and say
you can't even take your companies public in New York see I'm not the right
person to ask on that Donald J Trump is the president I'm part of a large trade
team that interacts with all of the agencies we sit in places like the
Situation Room at our this is going to go but you're trying to stop China from
stealing intellectual property Peter they don't even admit it they say they
don't do it so how do you change a situation where you can't even get them
to agree that they are in fact ceiling well we have a in motion the president
has said that come June 15th they'll be targeted tariffs so on the
China 2025 high-tech industries of the future that they tried to take from us
and they'll be set investment restrictions on June 30th to prevent
them from coming in and buying companies that are in things like artificial
intelligence and robotics which by the way are not only the industries of our
economic future but they're also the industries that are very important
militarily I get so the president is taking measured thoughtful strategic
steps he's this started again back in June of 2016 where he said in Pittsburgh
that he would crack down on Chinese he shared intellectual property he's just
doing what he said he's gonna do it's promises made promises kept and this
president's amazing just look at the numbers Peter it's good to have you on
the program thanks for earlier President Trump is doubling down on claims that
the FBI meanwhile crossed the line when using an informant to investigate his
campaign his ties to Russia
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