Chief White House Economic Advisor Is 'Quite Patient' About Tariffs on China

Previous presidents gave lip service to curbing China's unfair trade practices, but never followed through, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said during a Q&A at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. "And President Trump is following through. Don't blame Trump, blame the system he inherited." Kudlow, who called Trump a disrupter, acknowledged that he is "more of a doctrinaire free trader" than his boss. But, he said, the China problem can't be left alone. "China has played fast and loose with the rules," Kudlow said Oct. 4. "The World Trade Organization needs reforms to enforce those rules. China is not a developing country anymore."

China's ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, also participated in a Q&A that was broadcast on NPR on Oct. 4. He expressed disappointment that the two countries are in a trade war, and said that China wants to engage in talks to find a solution. But, he said, that's difficult. "The U.S. position keeps changing all the time, so we don't know exactly what the U.S. would want as priorities. And number two, I think there's been some attempt on the U.S. side to force something like, the U.S. will get 100 percent and China will get zero. I don't think this is fair. I don't think this is possible. We are ready to make a deal. We are ready to make some compromise, but it needs the goodwill from both sides."

Cui sounded a little bewildered when he talked about the deal to buy more liquefied natural gas, pork and soybeans from the U.S., which for a brief time in May, seemed like it would forestall the trade war (see 1805200002). "We offered to reduce the trade deficit of the United States," Cui said. "And we also presented a very good proposal to the U.S. side about the further reform and opening up in China, some of the so-called structural issues. We are ready to work on the issues. Then I think more than once we had some tentative agreement between the two working teams. Then just overnight the tentative agreement was rejected and the demand from the U.S. changed. So this is very confusing, and this is making things very difficult."

Kudlow said there's some hope that Trump and China's president could meet on the sidelines of the G-20 summit at the end of November. "The process is slowed. We’ve been very disappointed with China’s response, we’ve made our ask," he said. The conflict has only been going on for five months, he said. "I am quite patient on this ... let’s let him do his work."