Top White House adviser contradicts Trump on tariffs

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The White House's top economic adviser acknowledged Sunday that U.S. consumers and businesses pay the tariffs that the Trump administration has imposed on billions of dollars of Chinese goods, even as President Trump himself insisted in a tweet, incorrectly, that China pays.

"Yes, I don't disagree with that," said Larry Kudlow, the head of the president's National Economic Council, when Chris Wallace, host of "Fox News Sunday," asked him, "It's U.S. businesses and U.S. consumers who pay, correct?"

Kudlow added, "Both sides will pay," but he stipulated that China "will suffer (economic) losses" from reduced exports to the U.S., not from paying the tariffs.

Kudlow's admission contradicts many of Trump's comments and tweets to the effect that Chinese companies pay the tariffs in what amounts, in the president's view, to a massive transfer of wealth to the United States from China. Yet almost no economist has agreed with Trump's view and fact-checkers routinely brand Trump's assertion false and point out that American importers of goods from China pay the tariffs.

Trump has also asserted that trade wars are "easy to win," but Kudlow accepted that they come with costs for the U.S. economy, though he downplayed the impact.

On Friday, the Trump administration raised duties on $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25% from 10%, after charging that China had backtracked on commitments it made earlier in the talks. The administration has already hit $50 billion of additional Chinese goods with 25% duties