Retaliatory tariffs won’t lower US tariffs but will likely increase them as Trump wants tariffs, former Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Everett Eissenstat says. #Trump
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00:00And yet, we're hearing from President Trump, if the European Union joins forces with Canada
00:05in order to do some economic harm to the United States, he says large-scale tariffs, far larger
00:11than currently planned, will be placed on them.
00:14So what President Trump is saying here, basically, is try anything and we'll hit you even harder.
00:21We've never heard anything like that before, have we?
00:22Well, we have, actually.
00:23I mean, the President's been pretty clear, even when Canada was going to retaliate on
00:29the IEPA tariffs that were put into place about a month ago on the fentanyl crisis.
00:36There was a province in Canada that threatened to raise rates on electricity, and the President
00:40was very vocal that that would result in a very significant tariff increase against Canada.
00:45So this is one of the volatile dangers that I'm worried about, is that when governments
00:50retaliate, they need to remember President Trump wants tariffs.
00:55It's not a bad outcome for him if tariffs go into place.
00:58So when they retaliate, he simply finds it as a good rationale to counter-retaliate and
01:03really, I think, would have ended up with higher tariffs on both sides.
01:07I'm not saying governments should or should not retaliate.
01:10It's up to their own decisions.
01:11But I think the expectation that that will impose an immediate reduction of tariffs by
01:17the United States is probably not accurate.