Senior White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday defended the cleaning fees President Trump is leviing on foreign countries, showing that other countries' offers are insufficient to persuade the president to retreat to drop their own tariffs on American products.
Navarro, a architect of many of Trump's trade plans, said about CNBC that the United States faces national emergency based on chronic trade obstacles, with the only amendment being foreign countries that remove trade barriers that hindered the flow of American goods.
The European Union offered to drop tariffs on American cars and industrial products to zero on Monday if the US did the same. However, Navarro criticized the Bullock for its VAT and restrictions on American meat exports, as well as systematically high tariffs.
“You steal from all Americans how it is possible,” Navarro said. “So you shouldn't say it's just a lowering tariff.”
Navarro also targeted Vietnam. Vietnam has recently appealed to the president to reduce tariffs. He accused Vietnam of dumping it in the US market, engaged in the theft of intellectual property, killing industries such as shrimp, kitchen cabinets and more.
“When they come to us and say, we go to zero tariffs, which means nothing to us.
But Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent, who was in charge of negotiations with Japan along with US trade representative Jamieson Greer, signaled in an interview later on the day Trump was ready to negotiate.
“You know, President Trump is better at giving maximum leverage than anyone else,” he said.
Mr Becent said the foreign officials proposed to “keep your coolness, don't escalate, don't come to us at your offer.” He added: “And at some point, President Trump is ready to negotiate.”
In an interview with CNBC in the morning, Navarro said other benefits are approaching for Americans, including tax cuts and deregulation, lower energy prices, lower interest rates and restructuring manufacturing.
“We're going to get to where America makes things again. Real wages will rise, profits will rise,” he said, adding, “The market will find a bottom.” The stock market fell slightly on Monday after punishing last week's two-day losses.
He was also asked over the weekend, particularly about tariffs and Elon Musk's very public criticism of Mr Navarro. After praising Navarro on a social media post, Musk chuckled on Saturday that Navarro's Ivy League degree was useless, saying Navarro hadn't “built” anything.
On Monday, Navarro said Musk is a “automatic assembler” “not an automaker” and that Tesla plants in Texas import batteries, electronics, tires and other parts. “He wants the cheap foreign part and we understand that,” he said.
