Former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn says President Trump is “desperate” to secure a trade deal with China.
During an interview Thursday with the public radio show “Freakonomics,” Cohen said a failure to secure a lasting agreement with China would be catastrophic to the Trump administration and accused Trump’s closest advisers on trade of being clouded by protectionist tendencies.
“The president needs a win,” Cohn said.
“I think market access, the Chinese will give because they’ve been close to giving it for a while. But how are we going to stop the Chinese from stealing intellectual property or not paying for it?” he said. “How are we going to stop them from copyright infringement? What is the enforcement mechanism, and what are the punitive damages if they don’t stop?”
[Related: Pompeo says Trump administration ‘on the cusp’ of ending trade war with China]
The Trump administration has been engaged in a trade war with the Chinese government, exchanging increases in tariffs on automobiles and agricultural products. The U.S. has also accused China of stealing American intellectual property and of currency manipulation in the global markets.
Since the start of his presidential campaign in 2015, Trump has made a renegotiation of trade agreements between the U.S. and China an integral part of his political agenda.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that the U.S. is “not in a hurry” to strike an agreement with Chinese officials. He said that “there’s always a chance” that ongoing negotiations could fail.
A self-described globalist and a former successful investment banker at Goldman Sachs, Cohn left his White House post in March 2018, saying that his voice had been largely pushed out by those favoring more protectionist approaches to the president’s trade policy.
“I was losing the war on tariffs every day with the president. I knew I wasn’t convincing him I was right,” he said. “I was not going to take a 74-year-old man who’s believed something since he was 30 and convince him that I was right. Believe me, I tried.”
