Trade Chief Navarro: South Korea Trade Deal 'Very Good News'

The revised trade deal reached with South Korea is "very good news" for the United States and resolves one of the three worst trade deals in American history, according to Director of Trade and Industrial Policy Peter Navarro.

Before its revisions, the deal fell only behind NAFTA and China's entry into the World Trade Organization, Navarro told Fox News' "Fox & Friends," while praising President Donald Trump for being a "visionary and innovative president" who led to the deal.

"The people who make light trucks in places like Detroit can breathe a lot easier because those light trucks from Korea aren't going to be dumped into the market," said Navarro. "Folks who make autos in Michigan and the related states can also breathe easier because we're going to be able to sell a lot more cars to Korea."

Also, the trade chief said, "In Silicon Valley and down in San Diego where a lot of the pharmaceuticals get made there's a there's a key provision for innovative drugs that we can sell from the medicinal purposes."

South Korea has agreed to limit U.S. shipments of the metal to about 2.7 million tons a year, according to the deal. South Korea has also agreed to double the number of U.S. cars that could be imported without meeting local safety standards to 50,000.

Navarro said the deal also puts to rest "any notion that the president's going to be letting any countries out of the steel and aluminum tariffs because the Koreans have agreed to a very strict to 70 percent quota on steel and agreed to the 10 percent tariffs on aluminum."

This means that "folks in places like Granite City, Illinois, where we have steel factories reopening, can breathe easier as well," said Navarro.

The deal comes after 30 years of globalization that has "destroyed the middle class and driven down wages," said Navarro.

The original deal with South Korea that went into effect in 2012 was negotiated by then-President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said Navarro, and "we watched our trade deficit double. We didn't sell a single dollar's worth more of exports."

With each $1 billion lost in trade deficits, another 6,000 jobs go offshore, he continued.

"That's what Donald Trump is trying to turn around and this deal is really a marker and it will help us going forward with things like NAFTA," said Navarro.

The deal also strengthens the United States' national security interests, he said, and allows the United States and South Korea to present a united front when dealing with China.

"It's just a fact that they steal our intellectual property," said Navarro. "When our companies go to China they have to surrender that intellectual property."

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