FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Kudlow Says U.S.-China Policy Talks, ‘Not an Arbitrary Deadline,’ Will Determine Tariffs

Nov. 1, 2018 (EIRNS)—In an interview with CNBC yesterday, Larry Kudlow, the director of President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council, said that whether or not new tariffs are imposed on China, will depend on “policy talks” between Presidents Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 meeting at the end of this month, not on some “arbitrary deadline.”

Pressed by CNBC on whether Trump will definitely impose new tariffs on China, Kudlow admonished the interviewer,

“don’t get ahead of your skis. We may have a very good meeting in Argentina with President Xi. I’m not sure—the agenda hasn’t yet been worked out. These things are very hard to predict.”

But, he insisted, “nothing is set in stone right now.” The two heads of state will definitely have a face-to-face meeting in Buenos Aires, he said, and “it’s possible some good things could—I say could—come out of the President Trump-Xi talks. It’s possible.”

Kudlow also reminded the CNBC interviewer of remarks that Trump had made to other media, that if there were an amicable meeting with Xi, a lot of tariffs might be pulled back. The U.S. President “wasn’t promising or forecasting; he was just giving a very important hypothetical.” The Chinese know “what our list of asks are,” he explained. They know what we want. “We haven’t had intense talks, but there is always communication.”