Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday said countries could not appease President Donald Trump — even if they reduce their tariffs on American goods all the way to zero.
Appearing on CNBC, Navarro was asked about Vietnam's offer to completely eliminate its tariffs on American goods. He said that was nowhere near enough of a concession to satisfy Trump and get him to back off his plans to reduce the massive 46 percent tariff he slapped on all their goods.
"Zero tariffs, that means nothing to us because it's the non-tariff cheating that matters!" he insisted. "They sell us $15 for every $1 we sell them. About $5 of that $15 is China trans shipping to Vietnam to evade their tariffs."
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In reality, a country running a trade surplus with another country is not "cheating" that country. Rather, it is a reflection of the fact that the country with the trade deficit buys more overall goods from the country with the surplus than vice-versa.
Regardless, Navarro told CNBC that "any country that wants to come to talk to us, talk to us about lowering your non-tariff barriers."
Navarro then went on to cite examples of other nations' value-added taxes on goods as an example of stealth tariffs placed on American goods despite the fact that VATs apply to both foreign and domestically produced goods and thus do not penalize American products.
Watch the video below or at this link.