Feb 19, 2017

What Trump's top man on trade told Congress

In the Washington Post's profile of Peter Navarro, whom they call "Mr. Death by China," they catch what he said in a briefing last week with members of the Senate Finance Committee. His priorities:

  • Free and fair trade
  • Bilateral deals (not multilateral ones)
  • Reduction of trade deficit
  • Stronger industrial base
  • Automatic triggers for renegotiation of trade deals

According to people at the meeting, Navarro also said he wanted tools to punish currency manipulation and restrict subsidized, state-owned companies. And he said the WTO has been "unfair" to the U.S., and that Canada had "played" the Americans in NAFTA.

Why this matters: Trump picked Navarro to be head of the newly created White House National Trade Council and he's very in tune with the president's thinking on trade.

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