White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday he couldn’t name members of his promised “Trade Coalition of the Willing,” or other countries who were also open to impose tariffs in response to China’s alleged intellectual property rights infringements.
“I can’t answer that, I don’t even want to answer that,” Kudlow told “Fox News Sunday.”
“All I’m saying is my ‘Trade Coalition of the Willing’ will put the whole world behind the United States’ actions against China and this is going to have a big effect on China. China does not want to lose face, but China does not want to be regarded as the enemy in trade for the entire world,” he continued.
Kudlow said on Friday he would name members of his supposed coalition within 24 to 48 hours, but on Sunday explained countries were still approaching the U.S. over the matter, listing Japan, Australia, Canada, and Europe as possible examples.
The U.S. last week proposed introducing about $50 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods in retaliation for intellectual property theft. China then announced its own set of tariffs it would implement should the U.S. roll out the measures.
Trump later asked his U.S. trade representative to evaluate the need for tariffs on an additional $100 billion of Chinese goods.
