“They understand that they ow a lot of tariffs, so they do,” Kevin Hassett said.
A top White House economic adviser said on Sunday that more than 50 countries contacted the Trump administration and began negotiations on a wide range of tariffs announced last week in almost every country around the world.
“They understand that they ow a lot of tariffs, so they do,” he told the outlet.
Last week, Trump announced a minimum 10% tariff for all trading partners and a higher tax rate for around 60 countries. The higher tariffs are expected to take effect on April 9th.
Canada and Mexico have been exempt from the latest tariffs as they are subject to the 25% tariffs announced a few weeks ago. These tariffs were collected in the United States through neighbors in the south and north to curb illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking.
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Taiwan’s President Lai Qingte on Sunday promised to provide zero tariffs as a basis for talks with the US, removing trade barriers rather than imposing mutual measures, and that Taiwanese companies would increase US investment.
Elsewhere in Sunday’s interview, Hassett said US economic data “showed that I have one of the stronger employment reports I’ve seen in a long time,” suggesting tariffs could lead to American jobs.
The job data was “about 50% better than the expected market. That’s the second market in a row,” he said. “Since President Trump took office, we’ve already created 10,000 car jobs. I just got the words. I have the attitude word last night that the car factory is adding a second shift to the US to accommodate these tariffs.”
Hassett said he doesn’t expect exporters to be a huge hit with consumers as exporters are likely to lower prices “because they depend on supply and demand… because they depend on the elasticity of supply and demand.” “And again, if you think a consumer will pay that tax, you should be confused as to why it is upset about it.
“The bottom row is China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2000. Over the next 15 years, real revenues have fallen cumulatively by about $1,200 during that time,” Hassett said.
“So, if cheap products were the answer, if cheap products were to make Americans real wages, if real welfare would be better then the real income would have risen in the meantime. Instead, they had wages lower than prices fell, so they went down.”
Since the announcement of the tariffs, Dow Jones Industrial Arage has dropped a total of 4,000 points on April 3 and April 4th. The Nasdaq scored 5.82% points, and the S&P 500 also fell 5.97% on April 4th, a 5.97% decline.
Reuters contributed to this report.
