White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow clarified Monday the 90-day window for the U.S. and China to negotiate on trade will begin Jan. 1, rather than immediately.
The Jan. 1 start date gives Chinese leadership a little more time to work toward preventing President Trump from ratcheting up tariffs. Kudlow said on a press call Monday that he expects China to zero out its tariffs on auto imports from the U.S. as part of a deal.
“Those things should kick in soon. We should see palpable change on the Chinese side immediately. I don’t want to be too specific, but I think the generic answer is we will see changes very quickly,” Kudlow told reporters Monday.
On Saturday, Trump agreed to hold off on ratcheting up tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10 to 25 percent for 90 days in order to give the two sides time to reach a more permanent agreement. The tariffs had been set to rise to 25 percent on Jan. 1. In exchange, China made agreements to purchase an estimated $1.2 trillion in U.S. goods.
[Read more: Wall Street surges after Trump’s temporary trade truce with China]
Kudlow said the administration was “pretty close” on a deal to address intellectual property theft. He also said that China had agreed “to roll back their auto tariffs,” stating “that’s got to be part of the [eventual] deal.” China currently imposes a 40 percent tariffs on U.S. cars, a retaliatory measure for the administration’s tariffs against it. It charges a 15 percent rates for other imports.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin echoed the claim to reporters Monday. “The first part was to reduce the surcharge, but yes, there have been specific discussions on where auto tariffs will come down to, but I’m not prepared to talk about the specifics,” he said. On Sunday, Trump tweeted that China would “reduce and remove” the tariffs.
