Michael Pillsbury, an outsider adviser to the White House on China policy, said that President Trump would likely escalate the trade war if no deal is reached, including by dramatically raising existing tariffs.
The comments come as United States and Chinese officials are currently holding a new round of talks in Washington, D.C.
“Does the president have options to escalate the trade war? Yes, the tariffs can be raised higher,” Pillsbury, a senior fellow and director for Chinese strategy at the conservative Hudson Institute, told the South China Morning Post. “There are other options involving the financial markets, Wall Street, you know, the president has a whole range of options.”
The White House has already raised tariffs on Chinese products to levels not seen since the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the early 1930s and a 1977 law that Trump has publicly cited which gives the president broad powers to effectively shutdown all trade in the name of national security.
Pillsbury, who has advised the White House and previous Republican presidents going back the Reagan administration, stressed in the interview that he was not speaking for the administration and that Trump’s tweets were the best guide to his thinking. No one should assume the tweets are bluffs, Pillsbury said.
“I believe President Trump uses social media, especially on China, to convey his thinking. So I reject the idea that I or anyone else is some kind of adviser to him on China,” he said. “His focus is revealed frequently in the tweets that I think everybody should take very seriously as presidential statements.”
Lower-level U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators are meeting in Washington, D.C., Thursday and Friday for the first talks in two months.
