National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow has a message for Americans worried about tariffs: relax.
Kudlow spoke with Fox News' Martha MacCallum on Wednesday night about a host of issues, including the brewing trade war with China. President Donald Trump has proposed placing import tariffs on steel, aluminum, and various products from China and other nations.
Kudlow said it is too early to begin worrying about any negative impacts the tariffs would have on the United States economy.
"We don't know what we're going to do yet – there are no tariffs yet," Kudlow said. "Nothing has been implemented or executed. . . . You have to have public hearings and then private analysis, nothing is going to happen much for the next couple of months, in my view. That gives plenty of time for the leaders to negotiate or at least keep talking to each other."
"Growth solves a lot of problems and businesses really improving. Let's not go nuts, let's relax and see what how things work out . . . have confidence in this administration and the American economy."
The stock market has been volatile since late January, in part due to Trump's tariff talk.
The administration's goal, Kudlow said, is to curb some of China's trade practices that come across as illegal — or at the very least unethical. That includes things like transshipping, when a country ships product to another country, which then turns around and sells it to the U.S. or other nations, and selling product at a cheaper rate than normal in order to flood the market.
"My take is good things are out there," Kudlow said. "President Xi [Jinping] and China gave a very conciliatory speech two nights ago. Very important because up until now, all of our trade initiatives have been insulted and beaten down and rough language from the Chinese. Very bad. Xi breaks that."
Kudlow then explained how China continues to steal American intellectual property and other pieces of technology developed in the U.S.
"They can't get the technology that makes America the leader, so they're going to try to steal it, we won't let them," Kudlow said. "I'm a free trader, I'm not a big tariff guy. But we cannot let China get away with these unfair, and frankly illegal, trade practices."
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