“Shark Tank” star and notable business mogul and investor Kevin O’Leary recently spoke with CNN journalists on the subject of President Donald Trump’s tariff war with China, largely endorsing Trump’s position on the matter.
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O’Leary wasn’t content to merely reinforce the president’s stance on trade with China, however, with “Mr. Wonderful” going so far as to propose even more severe tariffs against the competing nation.
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O’Leary on Tariffs
“104% tariffs on China are not enough. I’m advocating [for] 400%. I do business with China; they don’t play by the rules,” O’Leary said. “They’ve been in the WTO for decades. They’ve never abided by any of the rules they agreed to when they came in, for decades. … I can’t litigate in their courts. They take product, technology; they steal it, they manufacture and sell it back here,” O’Leary said.
O’Leary said he wanted China’s president, Xi Jinping, on a flight to Washington to negotiate a more level playing field.
Beyond that, he indicated that this conflict had been brewing for decades and was far more expansive in nature than being constrained to the tariff issue itself. O’Leary suggested that previous U.S. administrations, as well as European governments, had failed to act over the course of many years to combat an excessive level of theft and dishonesty coming from Beijing.
“I have nothing against the Chinese people. They’ve brought great literacy, art and tech to the world,” he added. “The government cheats and steals, and finally an administration — you may not like Trump, you may not like his style or his rhetoric — finally an administration [has said] ‘enough,’” O’Leary said.
O’Leary underlined a scenario: By ratcheting up the pressure created by tariffs against China, Xi may not be able to maintain his hold on power, particularly as political tensions related to a loss of employment due to a refusal into the American consumer market could increase.
O’Leary went on to state that the United States was responsible for 39% of all global consumables and 25% of the world’s GDP — and that America was the largest economy on Earth, and thus held all the cards.
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Lower Tariffs May Be Coming
O’Leary’s call for 400% tariffs seems unlikely to be enacted — while Trump initially rebuffed China’s demands of lowering the current 145% tariff, he has more recently suggested that he might lower the tariff to 80% in light of upcoming trade talks.
Editor’s note on political coverage: GOBankingRates is nonpartisan and strives to cover all aspects of the economy objectively and present balanced reports on politically focused finance stories. You can find more coverage of this topic on GOBankingRates.com.
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Sources
YouTube, CNN, “Kevin O’Leary calls for 400% tariffs on China.”
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Kevin O’Leary: Trump’s Tariffs on China Are Not Enough — Here’s Why
