Business Roundtable’s Josh Bolten: Trump’s Tariffs a ‘Huge Mistake,’ ‘Will Cause Huge Damage’

‘You’re going to cause damage across any number of downstream industries and any number of industries that export to countries that are likely to retaliate’

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WALLACE: Even before the new Trump tariffs are officially announced, there is fierce pushback to the policy. Some of the loudest alarms are coming from the business roundtable, an association of CEOs from leading U.S. companies.

Joining me now, Josh Bolten, head of the business roundtable and former White House chief of staff under George W. Bush.

Josh, welcome back.

JOSH BOLTEN, CEO & PRESIDENT, BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE: Thank you, Chris.

WALLACE: You were listening to Mr. Navarro. What you think of his defense of the president’s new tariffs?

BOLTEN: I think it’s a huge mistake and I’m sad that President Bush has been led by that kind of advice.

WALLACE: President Trump. That was loss (ph) of memory there.

BOLTEN: Well, man. Thank you.

President Trump I think is coming at this with the best of instincts. He’s trying to fulfill his campaign promises. He’s trying to help some workers in the United States, specifically in the steel and aluminum industries.

What he needs to understand and what the overwhelming majority of the businesses in our organization are trying to say is, this will cause huge damage across broad sectors of the economy. You maybe will be able to give a little bit of help to the steel and aluminum industries. You’re going to cause damage across any number of downstream industries and any number of industries that export to countries that are likely to retaliate.

WALLACE: But there’s no question I think you would agree that the Chinese’s over overproduction of steel and their importing to the U.S. — sometimes not only directly and through other countries has dramatically hurt the steel industry and cost American jobs.

Are you saying the president should just stand there and let it happen?

BOLTEN: No, absolutely not. I mean, the problem is the one you identified, which is state-subsidized overcapacity in China, especially in steel. And that’s the issue that ought to be addressed.

Ironically, the announcement that President Trump made this past week hits steel imported from all kinds of countries, most of them are friends and allies, many of them are free trade agreement partners, and hits China only minimally. China accounts for only 2 percent of the U.S. steel imports at this point. So, the remedies that Peter Navarro is pushing the president to impose doesn’t address the real problem, which is Chinese overcapacity.

Now, how do you address that? It’s really hard. You’ve got to get together with our friends and allies, who all face the same problem, put pressure on the Chinese jointly, because you can’t do this individually, and force the Chinese to reform their practices. But it’s not an easy task. It’s not as easy as waving your hand and putting tariffs on a whole bunch of countries that are not the problem.

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