美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Official Dismisses Warnings About Trade Tensions As 'Hiccups'

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Tensions over President Trump 1's trade policies are growing this week, and some surprising groups of people are unhappy about it. Organizations that typically support Trump say the tariffs 2 against major U.S. trading partners could undermine the strong economy. The Trump administration is showing no signs of backing down. For the latest, we're joined by NPR's Jim Zarroli. Hi, Jim.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE 3: Hi, Ari.

SHAPIRO: The U.S. Chamber 4 of Commerce put out a statement today taking issue with the president's trade policies. Tell us about what the statement said.

ZARROLI: Well, one of the things it said - it's - it really - it had a kind of an analysis in it of how much the tariffs will cost every state. So state economies in some states, like Washington and Ohio, will lose billions of dollars, as much as $6 billion. It also said, you know, the president has done a lot of things right in the economy, like the tax cuts. But a trade war could really undermine that. Then, Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity, which is a Koch brothers-funded group, said virtually the same thing on MSNBC today.

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TIM PHILLIPS: This administration deserves a lot of credit for this economy doing better, with their tax cuts, tax reforms, eliminating barriers on the regulatory front. But these tariffs risk undermining everything good that's been happening.

ZARROLI: And the important thing here is not just that they don't like Trump's policies. It's that groups like the Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity, they have a lot of money to spend. And they're saying that they're willing to use it to fight the Trump administration's policies.

SHAPIRO: And outside of the U.S., the president is doing battle with some of America's major trading partners. Explain how this is playing out.

ZARROLI: It - (laughter) well, it's not playing out well. Over the weekend, Canada imposed some tariffs on U.S. exports, things like whiskey, coffee products. The European Union came out with some comments the other day about Trump's proposed tariffs on autos. It said this will only backfire against the U.S. And this coming Friday, the Trump administration is supposed to slap some tariffs on Chinese imports, and China is going to retaliate 5. It's drawn 6 up this long list of American products that is - that are going to be affected 7.

So you know, Trump has said many times that the - you know, once the U.S. started getting on - tough on what he says are these abusive trading practices, that other countries would give in. And there's simply no sign of that happening at this point.

SHAPIRO: And is there any sign that all this pushback is swaying the administration?

ZARROLI: Not really. I mean, Wilbur Ross, the Commerce secretary, he's been one of the big trade hawks 8 in the administration. He was on CNBC today. He was asked about the fact that the stock market has been pretty lackluster this year. And a lot of people think that's because of the trade war. And so he - Ross was asked, how much of a drop in the markets are you willing to tolerate until you change course on trade? And this is what he had to say.

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WILBUR ROSS: The president is trying to fix long-term problems that should have been dealt with long time ago - weren't. And there obviously is going to be some pulling and tugging 9 as we try to deal with very serious problems.

ZARROLI: And then Trump over the weekend have had some really strong words about trade, especially about the European Union. He said - he was on Fox, and he said in an interview, they treat us very unfairly. He actually said the European Union is possibly as bad as China, just smaller. And he said every country that has a trade deficit 10 with the United States should be subject to tariffs. So he's not backing down.

SHAPIRO: All right. NPR's Jim Zarroli. Thanks, Jim.

ZARROLI: You're welcome.