Larry Kudlow Lays Down Hard Line for Any China Trade Deal

The White House has not relaxed its stringent requirements for any trade deal with China, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Tuesday.

“[Trump] believes that China would like to have a deal,” said Kudlow in an interview FOX Business’ Stuart Varney. “But he has also told me on a number of occasions any deal between the two countries has got to be in American interests without any question.”
Kudlow laid out a long list of President Donald Trump’s conditions for any trade deal with China, setting out a very high bar for the recently restarted talks between the two nations.

“It’s got to include IP theft. Its got to include changes in ownership. It’s got to stop the forced transfer of technology. It’s got to go to zero tariffs and zero non-tariff barriers. It’s got to have enforceability. It’s got to have strict timetables. It has to have, frankly, more than we’ve seen so far,” Kudlow said.

That list would require extremely significant changes to Chinese economic policy. Few analysts think China is ready to go to zero tariffs and zero non-tariff barriers, for example.

Despite the exacting conditions, Kudlow said the president is optimistic about the upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires.

“They will be meeting in Argentina,” he said. “I and many others will be there and we will see how it turns out. You’re not going to get a deal unless it suits American interest. That’s a key point that President Trump is making.”

Early hopes by China doves in the Trump administration for a “trade truce” to emerge from the meeting, however, have largely been squelched. Over the weekend, the U.S. and several other nations confronted China at an economic summit in Papua New Guinea. Far from signaling a willingness to compromise its predatory stance, however, China reacted with anger and belligerence.

As Breitbart News’ John Hayward reported, the summit was an “unexpected disaster” for China and President Xi.