On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” White House Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro said that “The whole end game of tariffs is to bring production jobs here,” but there are “different strategies” for each kind of tariff.
After Navarro said that there will be a large “deflationary positive effect,” host Jake Tapper asked, “When do you think that’s going to happen? Because, as you know, there are a lot of companies and there are a lot of Americans concerned that the tariffs, especially the threat of tariff, take it back, threat of tariff, take it back is creating instability in the market.”
Navarro answered, “Okay, so, let’s take them one at a time. So, I’ve told you 3D, [drilling, deregulation, and DOGE] that’s our broad Trumponomics. Now, with respect to the inflation we have today and how we’re going to handle that, what happens when we place tariffs on? The whole end game of tariffs is to bring production jobs here, which will increase productivity, real wages, give people more purchasing power and more prosperity.”
Navarro added that this is already starting to happen due to increased investments in the U.S. and cited the global tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Navarro further stated, “The whole point of the steel and aluminum tariffs, let’s just talk strategically about that, because there [are] different strategies for each [kind] of [tariff]. National security, as the president has said, we can’t have a country defendable without a solid steel and aluminum industry. In the first term, we put them on in 2018, steel was at 70% capacity utilization. In other words, 30% of their factories weren’t working. That’s not profitable. Our target was 80%. We got there. And what happened during the Biden administration was over 300,000 product exclusions and virtually every country got some kind of exemption from that, and it took us back down. So, those go back on. Now, those had zero effect on inflation, zero. And what we got was a strong steel and aluminum industry.”
Tapper then cut in to ask about how long the economic disruption will last.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
