ExclusiveLike a ‘dog with a bone on trade,’ Trump won’t back down until US deficit narrows, Reince Priebus says
US President Donald Trump is mulling a so-called reciprocal tax on imports to help America narrow its US$375 billion trade deficit with China, and he won’t back off until the imbalance “moves in the right direction,” his former chief of staff told the South China Morning Post.
US President Donald Trump, poised to add an estimated US$60 billion tariff package on Chinese products this week, is mulling a so-called reciprocal tax on imports to help America narrow its US$375 billion trade deficit with China, and he won’t back off until the imbalance “moves in the right direction,” said his former chief of staff.
“I don’t think the president is looking for a trade war, but he won’t back down from an issue he’s been talking about, and believed in, for 40 years,” said former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, in an interview with the South China Morning Post at the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong. “This is a signature issue that he’s not going to let go of. He’s like a dog with a bone on this trade issue.”
China’s government this week backed down from forcing foreign manufacturers to transfer their technology to local partners for market access, a practise that Beijing doesn’t acknowledge exists, even though foreign companies in automotive, semiconductor and new-energy batteries had been complaining about it for years.
China will also open up industries including aged care, education and financial services to overseas investments, remove foreign equity ceilings in some areas, while gradually cutting market access restrictions, Li said, without indicating when these changes would happen.