'Totally unrealistic': Economics expert scoffs at Trump's trade promise
The Cato Institute's Scott Lincicome quickly poured cold water over the White House’s rosy picture of the international trade war President Donald Trump unleashed with his sweeping set of tariffs.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday told reporters during a news briefing that the Trump administration's talks with countries that have come to the negotiating table on tariffs have produced “18 proposals on paper.”
“We are moving at Trump speed to ensure these deals are made,” Leavitt said, adding that the White House trade team was “meeting with 34 countries this week alone.”
But Lincicome, the Cato Institute’s vice president of general economics, appeared unconvinced during a CNN interview just moments after Leavitt's comments, as he put things into a broader perspective for viewers.
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“It’s totally unrealistic that we're going to see comprehensive trade deals for even a dozen countries, no less three dozen countries,” Lincicome said bluntly. “The reality is that trade policy is tricky stuff; the average U.S. trade agreement took about 18 months to negotiate, and another couple of years to sign and implement.”
He added: “So it's unlikely that we're going to see anything that's that deep in terms of its coverage – =whether we're talking about non-tariff barriers or regulatory barriers – but also just in terms of the sheer number of these deals, that's highly unlikely.”
Lincicome also doubted whether the administration was “actually getting real commitments that governments follow through on, or whether we're just getting promises to deal like China made in that big phase one deal back during the first Trump administration.”