Trump tweet on China called sign of progress
President Donald Trump’s tweet Wednesday on China is a sign of progress, according to the president of a group that focuses on U.S. ties with the Asian giant.
“We’re going to see some reduction in tariffs, which is going to lead to manufacturing exports,” Stephen Orlins said in an interview on the “Countdown to the Closing Bell” program on FOX Business.
Trump said in the tweet that his administration may take a different approach regarding the U.S. trade relationship with China.
“Our Trade Deal with China is moving along nicely, but in the end we will probably have to use a different structure in that this will be too hard to get done and to verify results after completion,” Trump said in the tweet.
The U.S. trade deficit with China climbed to more than $300 billion in 2017.
Orlins said focusing on the trade deficit is meaningless because it’s not a concrete measurement of progress in the trading relationship between the world’s two largest economies.
“What we should be focusing on is reducing tariffs, reducing kind of non-tariff barriers, so there are all sorts of regulatory issues which obstruct U.S. exports to China,” he said.