May 12 (UPI) — White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow clarified that China does not “pay” tariffs imposed by the United States on billions of dollars of imported goods, but said “both sides will suffer.”
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Kudlow contradicted a claim Friday by President Donald Trump in which he said $250 billion worth of tariffs on goods are paid by China” after host Chris Wallace noted the American companies actually pay the tax and often pass it on to consumers.
“Both sides will pay these things …but the Chinese will suffer GDP losses and so forth with respect to diminishing export markets and goods …” Kudlow said.
He also agreed with Wallace’s assessment that will suffer consequences but U.S. businesses and consumers will pay for the tariffs.
“Yes, to some extent. Yes, I don’t disagree with that,” Kudlow said. “Again, both sides will suffer on this.”
On Friday, Trump raised tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent.
Kudlow also said it could be “a couple of months” before Trump is able to impose 25 percent tariffs on a remaining $300 billion worth of Chinese goods.
“It will take some time,” Kudlow said. “Then of course the president is going to have to make the final decision on that.”
On Saturday, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He called for the United States to remove all tariffs after the two sides ended trade talks on Friday without a deal and the United States increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent.
Kudlow said Sunday that chances Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet during the G20 Summit in June are “probably pretty good,” but “no concrete definite plans” have been scheduled for further talks.
