Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro appeared on Fox News Thursday to discuss how the Trump administration plans to implement “fair trade” for the country, saying the issue shouldn’t be partisan as it benefits all Americans.
Trump announced the “Fair and Reciprocal Plan” on trade Thursday, signing a presidential memorandum that will seek “to correct long-standing imbalances in international trade and ensure fairness across the board.” On “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Navarro said other countries “cheat” the U.S. He said American-made cars are slapped with higher tariffs when sold to outside countries.
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“The rest of the world cheats us. They steal our jobs. They steal our factories. They damage our defense industrial base and ultimately steal our national security,” Navarro said. “I want to tell you a little story about the problem we face. You take Europe, right? We run a $230 billion trade deficit, much of it in the auto industry.”
“So think about a Cadillac rolling off the assembly line in Lansing, Michigan, going over Bremerhaven and trying to sell into the German markets. A $50,000 car, when it starts here, goes over there. They slap a 10% tariff on us, which is four times more than our tariff on them. Then they put the VAT tax on, the value-added tax, which acts just like a tariff,” Navarro added. “It’s another 19%. So by the time the Cadillac gets there, it’s $65,000. We had to sell it at $65,000.”
Navarro used BMW as an example, saying that when the car arrives from Germany into the U.S., America only adds a “modest 2.5% tariff,” making the cost around “$51,000.” He said, though, that the “German government rebates their 19% VAT tax,” allowing them to sell their BMWs “for $42,000 versus a $65,000 Cadillac.”
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“Now, that differential explains why Germany sells us eight times more cars than we sell them, and that stuff has got to stop,” Navarro said. “So what the Fair and Reciprocal Plan does is going to look at every country in the EU we run a big trade deficit with. We’re going to find out exactly how they’re cheating us with both tariffs and what the boss calls non-monetary barriers.”
In January, Trump warned Canada, Mexico, and China that he would be hitting them with an increased tariff “for the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country.” By Feb. 1, the president followed through on his vow, placing a 25% tariff on Mexico, a 25% tariff on Canada and a 10% tariff on China.
Just days after, both Mexico’s and Canada’s leaders swiftly conceded to the president’s demands, with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreeing to send 10,000 soldiers to the border as Trump had agreed to freeze their tariffs for a month.
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“We’ve sold this country out for 40 or 50 years with SHAFTA and NAFTA and letting China into the World Trade Organization. We run a trillion-dollar deficit every year, and the trade deficit and that money is then used to buy our factories, to buy our land, to buy our real estate, to buy our farms and all that stuff. Donald Trump says that’s not going to happen anymore,” Navarro said.
“So fair trade, the Fair and Reciprocal Plan, and the tariff word is a beautiful thing … it’s beautiful politically because Democrats can get on board too,” Navarro said. “Look, this is not a right or left thing, Democrat, Republican. It’s an American thing. If you love America, then you want jobs here and factories here and a strong defense industrial base. So you’ll be safe, secure, and prosperous.”
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.