President Trump’s chief economic adviser said Thursday that European Union Commission President Jean Claude Juncker pledged to back the U.S. trade fight against China.
The commitment to take on China’s trade abuses was made as part of the breakthrough zero-tariff deal struck this week by Mr. Trump and Mr. Juncker, said Larry Kudlow, director of the president’s National Economic Council.
“The United States and the E.U. will be allies in the fight against China, which has broken the world trading system,” Mr. Kudlow said on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.”
He said that China attempted to enlist the E.U. to oppose Mr. Trump’s get-tough trade policies but Mr. Juncker refused.
“Juncker made it very clear yesterday that he intended to help us [and] President Trump on the China problem,” he said.
The agreement to negotiate zero tariffs, zero barriers and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods avoided a full-fledged trade war. Mr. Trump pushed the E.U. to the brink of a trade war to get an agreement to level the playing field for U.S.-E.U. commerce.
When Mr. Trump and Mr. Juncker announced the deal Wednesday they included a push for World Trade Organization reforms that could reign in China.
“The world trading system is broken with high tariffs and barriers and technological stealing and [intellectual property] theft,” said Mr. Kudlow.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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