Peter Navarro on Negotiations Between the US and China

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, do you believe that there’s a possibility for some wins, even if it’s not a whole trade deal that is struck?

PETER NAVARRO, ASSISTANT TO THE U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, let me — the other thing I’ll say is that there — what President Trump has done in 2.5 years is truly remarkable and that he has brought together a consensus on the issue that we must deal with the China issue. If you look at polling on this, 8 out of 10 Republicans support the China tariffs and over half of Americans support the tariffs. In a rare show of unanimity on Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans, are strongly behind the president. I think it’s important — and I’ve been to this rodeo before after the meeting in Buenos Aires. It’s really important now that there would be little discussion in the press about this because most it will be inaccurate and that we simply let the negotiators do their job.

AMANPOUR: All right.

NAVARRO: If we are able to do that, then we may have a deal. And if we don’t, we’ll have tariffs. And as the president said, we’re taking in tens of billions of dollars of tariffs. And in the process, and this is the important thing, those tariffs defend American farmers, ranchers, manufacturing workers against these structural problems we face with China.

AMANPOUR: So —

NAVARRO: Let’s be optimistic. I think — I mean, the stock market is very bullish and the economy is very bullish. I think there’s a lot of other things going on in the economic world such as the United States-Mexico- Canada Agreement that are important to —

AMANPOUR: All right.

NAVARRO: — this administration. And I would be happy to talk about that. But let’s move on from China, if we can.

AMANPOUR: Well, no. Let me ask you a couple of things because you’ve raised a huge number of issues. So, I want to ask you about this. Look, the president basically said trade wars are good and they’re easy to win. But this has been going on for, you know, more than a year now and It’s not won. And, you know, you heard what the farmers said, they would much rather have trade deals than aid and some of them are bitterly complaining about how expensive things are becoming and how they’re being hurt by retaliatory tariffs. So, I guess, do you think a change of tactic or strategy is required?

NAVARRO: I think that on the issue of trade, what we have in this country is a world where numerous countries, not just China, Japan, the European Union, engage in systemically unfair practices. And one of the problems we face, Christiane, is under the rules of the World Trade Organization, it’s perfectly legal if not fair for other countries to charge us much higher tariffs and engage in nontariff barriers.