China Trade Fight Will Be Long, White House Adviser Warns

Don’t expect a quick deal to solve the China trade problem, a top adviser to President Donald Trump warned Tuesday.

Peter Navarro, director of trade and industrial policy at the White House, said on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that Chinese predatory trade policies are so embedded in its system that an accord will prove elusive.

“Basically, China would have to revamp its entire economic model, basically, to stop being the predator that it is,” he said. “That’s why a deal with China is going to be tougher than any deal with all of these other entities.”

Despite the long road ahead, Navarro said, President Donald Trump already has scored a great achievement simply by changing the conversation. For years, he said, China critics worked hard to convince American policymakers that the Asian behemoth even posed a danger.

That largely is over, Navarro said. “The only remaining debate now, Laura, is what we do,” he said. “And this is great progress.”

Navarro said China wants America to “buckle our knees politically” and “surrender” in the face of tariffs against politically sensitive agriculture interests.

At the same time, Navarro said, Chinese companies are seeking to evade U.S. tariffs by moving manufacturing operations to other countries. Host Laura Ingraham asked how the United States can stop that.

“That will be part of the chess game going forward, but let’s be clear: China is the manufacturing factory floor of the world, and they heavily subsidize their goods,” he said. “What they do basically is unfair, and they put Americans out of work. They put American businesses into bankruptcy.”

Navarro pledged to crack down on that.

“As they play their chess game, we’ll play ours,” he said. “And I’m betting on the president as the better chess player.”

Navarro pointed to the successful renegotiation of the Korean Free Trade Agreement and last week’s agreement by the European Union and the United States to work toward eliminating trade barriers as proof that tariff threats can achieve results.

Navarro said the United States has made progress on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), largely by engaging directly with Mexico. Canada has proved unwilling to negotiate in good faith, but Mexico has a shared interest with the United States, he said.

Navarro said Mexico would like to return more manufacturing that it has lost to lower-cost Asian nations. The United States would like to see a stronger North American supply chain, he added.

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“So that’s the common bond, and I’m very optimistic something will happen on that this summer, and that will be good for America,” he said.

As Trump moves to reorient U.S. trade policy, he is facing opposition from powerful interests that normally back Republicans. That includes billionaires Charles and David Koch, who have been critical of Trump’s trade policies and recently suggested they would withhold support from Republican congressional candidates — and, perhaps, even support Democratic candidates.

“It’s disappointing that you would have gentlemen like that putting money up toward policies that are directly against what the president is trying to do,” he said. “I think if you drained the swamp, you’d probably find them at the bottom of it.”