Former President Donald Trump is sticking by his plan to raise tariffs on all Chinese exports to the U.S. and said he isn’t worried about retaliatory levies from Beijing.
Mr. Trump said Monday that China was “petrified” of tariffs he imposed during his term, giving the U.S. leverage in the trade relationship.
“China is right now our boss, they are the boss of the United States — almost like we’re a subsidiary of China,” Mr. Trump said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “The whole topic of tariffs to me is so simple. It’s great economically for us and it brings our companies back. If you don’t have tariffs, we have nothing whatsoever on them.”
Mr. Trump, who is on track to be the Republican presidential nominee, has floated a 60% tariff on Chinese imports to the U.S. in a second term, and a 10% across-the-board tariff for other countries seeking to sell goods and services to the U.S. He said the levies would force China to set up operations within U.S. borders, employing Americans, and force U.S. corporations to bring back operations located overseas.
“Let American companies come back to America,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump wielded tariffs against China during his presidential term from 2017 to 2021, resulting in a trade war. Mr. Trump’s critics say tariff battles are too risky because costs are passed down to consumers and disrupt markets.
While the Biden administration has largely kept in place tariffs on China imposed during Mr. Trump’s term, the U.S. still imported a total of $427.2 billion from China last year, up about a fifth from the year before, according to the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. The latest numbers show that Mexico displaced China as the No. 1 exporter to the U.S. in 2023, in part because U.S. and foreign companies relocated there to avoid the trade frictions between Washington and Beijing.
The American Action Forum, a conservative think tank, estimates Mr. Trump’s tariffs on China have cost Americans an extra $195 billion since 2018.
Mr. Trump also said Monday he does not know if billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and other companies and owner of the X social media platform, will support him financially or verbally during the campaign.
“I don’t know, look, I’ve been friendly over the years, I helped him when I was president,” Mr. Trump said. “We obviously have opposing views on a minor subject called electric cars. I’m all for electric cars, but you have to have all of the alternatives also, you can’t just go to electric. You have a grid system in this country that is obsolete and a disaster.”
Mr. Trump predicted that auto workers will vote for him in November even though their labor union leaders are lining up behind President Biden.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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