Tariffs are the most potent defense the U.S. has to beat back China's aggression in acquiring emerging technologies and intellectual property, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro wrote in a column for The Wall Street Journal.
China's extralegal efforts to steal the crown jewels of U.S. technologies are well documented and happen in plain sight through its own foreign-ownership restrictions, but President Donald Trump is putting an end to that, Navarro writes.
"The 25 percent tariffs recently announced on $50 billion of China's exports to the U.S. are targeted at high-tech industries. These tariffs will form a critical line of defense against predatory trade practices China has used to the detriment of American industries," Navarro writes.
"It has taken vision and courage for the president to take these steps. The far easier course would be to continue the relationship with China as his predecessors did," Navarro writes.
"If China continues to escalate this trade dispute rather than treat the U.S. fairly, Americans may finally wake up to an economic and national-security threat that the president has seen coming for decades.
With its huge trade surplus with the U.S., China must know it has far more to lose in this trade dispute," Navarro writes. "The president won't back down when America's economic prosperity and national security are at stake.
"This is no time for miscalculation by China — and past time for China to end its economic aggression," Navarro writes.
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