Trump spoke with CNBC anchor Joe Kernen on an interview yesterday at the White House. There he complained again the the US has been “ripped off by China for a long time”. And he’s “ready to go to 500”, referring to tariffs on USD 500B of Chinese imports. That’s nearly all of the USD 505.5B Chinese imports in 2017. And he pledged that he’s “not doing this for politics” but “to do the right thing for the country”.
Here is the full interview:
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow laid the blame on Chinese President Xi Jinping again. He said, “the problem here is Xi. He doesn’t want to move, and they’ve offered the U.S. absolutely … no options regarding the issue of (intellectual property) theft and forced technology transfer.”
