White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said the United States was continuing to talk with China about a number of trade issues, but so far, China had not met U.S. requests.
"We are still talking with China on a number of issues... Those talks will continue to go on. We want lower (trade) barriers across the board," the director of the White House's National Economic Council told CNBC.
Kudlow told Bloomberg Television that President Donald Trump will not make any decisions on his threatened tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods before officials evaluate public comments on them.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office collected 5,914 individual comments on the proposed tariffs before a public comment period ended late on Thursday night.
“The president himself, we will evaluate the comments and we will make a decision regarding the $200 billion,” Kudlow said on Bloomberg Television. “We’ll make a decision on the volume, on the rate, on the timing, I don’t want to get ahead of that curve, it’s out there.”
Kudlow declined to say whether any decisions would be made on Friday.
Kudlow told CNBC that the Trump administration was still talking with China about a number of trade issues, but so far, China had not met U.S. requests.
Specifically, Kudlow said, the United States was seeking "zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, zero subsidies, stop the IP theft, stop the technology transfer, allow Americans to own their own companies."
The U.S. is continuing to try to work with China to lower trade barriers. "They've got to show some action," said Kudlow, who worked as Reagan’s budget deputy between 1981 and 1985.
"Those have been our asks for many months and so far those asks have not been satisfied," he said. "However hope springs eternal," said Kudlow, who served as the Trump campaign's senior economic adviser.
"I think the Chinese, you know, may find themselves more isolated if they don't come into the global process and if they don't provide new information and begin to say 'yes' to the asks of President Trump," said Kudlow, who served as the Trump campaign's senior economic adviser.
“Those have been our asks for many months and so far those asks have not been satisfied,” he said. “However hope springs eternal.”
Meanwhile, Kudlow said he was mildly optimistic about trade talks with the European Union and that soybeans, beef, natural gas, and military sales were "on the board" in those negotiations.
For its part, Canada is increasingly optimistic it can reach a deal with the United States to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement, although it may take until the end of September, a source with direct knowledge of the talks said on Friday.
© 2023 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.