A senior administration official warned Tuesday that China has “underestimated” President Trump’s resolve to hold the country accountable for its unfair trade practices, a day after the White House intensified its efforts by threatening new tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.
“No one should be surprised by the action the president took yesterday,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Tuesday, adding that Trump will “have the backs of all Americans” who may be impacted in the coming months by China’s retaliatory actions. Navarro said Trump has been working closely with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to develop measures that will specifically protect American farmers, who could face millions of dollars in losses due to prolonged trade disagreements between the U.S. and China.
“What [Chinese officials] do will help define our future relationship and I think that by attacking our farmers and laborers, they run the risk of really raising the interest of the American people in a way that will ultimately be beneficial to this whole trade dispute,” Navarro said.
Trump directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday to prepare new tariffs on Chinese imports, after President Xi Jinping matched the earlier tariffs imposed on China by the U.S. The president defended the move in a statement, claiming China is “now threatening United States companies, workers, and farmers who have done nothing wrong.”
“I think the other side may have underestimated the strong resolve of President Donald J. Trump and if they thought they could buy us off cheap with a few extra products sold and allow them to continue to steal our intellectual property and crown jewels, that was a miscalculation,” Navarro said.
“What we need is enforceable, accountable, systematic change, [that is] structural in nature, so that we can have free, fair, and balanced trade with China and the rest of the world,” he said. “We look forward to that day, but that is not this day.”
China’s Commerce Ministry denounced Trump’s threat in a statement late Monday, saying it would respond with “strong countermeasures” if the president follows through on imposing tariffs on another $200 billion of goods.
“This practice of extreme pressure and blackmail deviates from the consensus reached by two parties through many negotiations, and it also disappointed the international community,” the statement said.
The escalation comes just weeks after U.S. officials, led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, returned from a second round of trade negotiations with their Chinese counterparts in Beijing.
