Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross downplayed on Thursday the impact of the White House’s move to hit China with 25 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of imports, up from its original plan of just 10 percent tariffs. Ross argued that even then, the impact on the U.S. economy would be fairly marginal.
“Well, let’s put it into arithmetic perspective. 25 percent on $200 billion, if it comes to pass, is $50 billion a year. $50 billion a year on an $18 billion or so — $18 trillion or so economy is three-tenths of 1 percent. It’s not something that’s going to be cataclysmic,” Ross told Fox Business Thursday.
The commerce secretary defended the move, saying whatever pain it caused was necessary to force China to make concessions at the bargaining table. “The reason for the tariffs to begin with was to try to convince the Chinese to modify their behavior. Instead, they’ve been retaliating. So the president now feels that it’s potentially time to put more pressure on in order to modify their behavior. … We have to create a situation where it’s more painful for them to continue their bad practices than it is to reform them. That’s the purpose of the whole exercise.”
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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross: China tariffs "not something that's going to be cataclysmic"https://t.co/CyAE4SGeqY
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 2, 2018
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