The president’s comments of the possibility of cutting tariffs on China from 145% to 80% is “bait” ahead of the weekend’s talks in Geneva, and seems like “an attempt to deescalate” tensions over trade, says Action Economics principal director and chief economist Michael R. Englund.
I think that the White House wants to push toward announcing an outline for a deal, and wants to attach the 80% tariff to that, though it may also reflect an attempt to deescalate by allowing both sides to unilaterally lower rates, with the ‘we’ll go first’ approach,» Englund told Sputnik.
“The administration wants to maintain US public focus on [Trump’s] continuous successes, and President Trump is particularly skilled at managing his coverage and keeping himself in the news and at center stage,” Englund said, highlighting the president’s penchant for the spotlight.
“If there is a de-escalation, I don’t think it’s because Trump is concerned about the state of the economy, as I think he is fundamentally optimistic about growth prospects despite the concerns of economists, and economic data at least thus far have almost uniformly supported that US economic growth remains strong,” Englund noted.
