Welcome back growing tensions with China from Tick Tock privacy concerns to the Chinese spy balloon despite this though U.S China trade hit a record in 2022 can the U.S end its economic dependence on communist China joining me now to talk more about that is former U.S trade representative Robert lighthizer and it's great to see you Bob thanks very.
Much for being here this weekend Maria thank you uh for having me it's always a pleasure to be with you I I mean you've talked toss reliance any tabs on China I'm talking about Supply chains we are reliant on communist China for things like prescription drugs and Technology can we.
Decouple and should we be decoupling from China so I um Maria I call for something called strategic decoupling I'm not saying don't do business with China but I'm saying do smart business and do balance business so let's take a step back the first any any one of your listeners has to say themselves is China.
A friend neutral or are they a foe I think if you study the evidence in the last four or five years it would be very difficult difficult to conclude there anything but an unfriendly force and a massive one one that could literally have a bigger economy than we do they want to be number one in the world they want their system to Prevail in the.
World in the United States is in the way of that so we need we need a policy of strategic decoupling so to me what that means is one you put in place tariffs and you adjust them so that you get to balance trade balanced trade period two you don't have any Tech trade in the technology area no technology interdependence period full stop three.
You have to you have to be very careful in monitoring all their investment into the United States which is generally in order to get our data or our talent our our technology and two you have to be very careful and regulate all U.S investment going to China because that generally is in their interest so to me we need and I think you do it over time.
You do it smart uh you still sell your AG products you still buy the things that that make sense economically and you have a balanced relationship unrelated to to to technology and I think we have to cross the bridge and do that and anyone who doesn't understand that I think is failing in their job as an American official I want to get your.
Take on this most favored nation status when it comes to trade why why does China have most favored nation status when in fact they're doing all of these things that are exposing them as hostile a surveillance balloon theft of intellectual property decade after decade not to mention covid-19 and a cover-up a.
Million Americans are dead can we change most favorite Nation status and should we be changing it so absolutely so let's take another step back if I can what is most favored nation so there's there are two lists of tariffs lists for byproduct a high list and then what we call the most favorite Nation list which is actually quite.
Quite low for years in the United States for a variety of reasons the Congress every year could take away from China the the the the low tariffs the most favored nation tariffs and and impose on them the higher tariffs so there was a review process China had the benefit of the lower tariffs but it had no certainty that it would be able to keep.
Them in the year 2000 we had a vote in the United States it was led by by then President Clinton and In fairness a lot of Republicans and their view was that oh let's have more trade with China let's let's give certainty to the relationship let's have low tariffs with them because then they'll become a democracy they'll become like.
Switzerland well that was the one of the the the worst calculations worst decisions made in the last hundred years in terms of the the geopolitical uh position of the United States yeah they went the other way they went the other way they went more inward they they absolutely but it was totally predictable and by the way uh in 1997 I.
Wrote a New York Times article which predicted what way they were going to go so for sure we ought to repeal what is called permanent normal trade relations we think of it as mfn for sure we ought to we ought to repeal it but I think in addition we ought to put tariffs on China uh in order to get the trade deficit to zero we cannot have an.
Adversary and one who is increasingly hostile and threatening to us and and and have a gigantic trade deficit with them I mean we it's it's it's fair to say as president Trump used to say that we have rebuilt China we have transferred let me just give you this number about six trillion dollars in trade surpluses to them uh in the last.
20 years six trillion dollars it is shocking and and I and I say people might have misunderstood 10 years ago they might have been influenced by businesses in the like 10 years ago no rational person and now look at the situation and not see what's coming wow that is incredible in in terms of the amount of money and leeway that the.
CCP has been able to get then you've got all these wall streeters basically funding the expansion of the CCP by investing in companies that may be tied to the military which at some point might turn their guns on America look at Marie it's important to know that there are no there there are state-owned Enterprises as you say but.
There are no truly private Enterprises at all you look at these the government has has sales in almost all of their industry the the state owned as well as the so-called private when one of these private businessmen gets out of gets out of line they disappear they come back with a different attitude even U.S.
Companies that are operating over there are are monitor themselves very carefully not to do anything inconsistent with what they're told to by the CCP that's right wow that is a scary situation I I wish Western companies would understand uh that uh these are National Security issues it's not just all economic uh Robert.
Lighthizer it's always a pleasure to talk with you I so appreciate your time this weekend thank you very much for having me
DON'T LIKE CHINA? CHINA IS NOT ANSWERING YOUR CALLS. BILDEN'S PEOPLE SAY THEY WANT TO VISIT CHINA TO TALK. CHINA TOLD EVERYONE THAT THEY NEVER INVITED THEM TO COME TO VISIT OR TALK! U.S. WANTS TO BLOCK THE TECHNOLOGY? CHINA IS WAY AHEAD AND IS AFRAID THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO COPY THEIRS. THEY HOPE YOU WILL NOT KEEP HARRASSING THEM WITH YOUR ABILITY TO KNOCK DOWN BALLOONS WITH MISSILES. 1 AND HALF BILLION BALLOONS ARE BEING PREPARED FOR YOUR TARGET PRACTICE. CHINA SAYS CALL THEM ONLY IF YOU DON'T NEED A LOAN, SINCE MISSILES ARE EXPENSIVE.
The very finest buddy that I know, is their substitute associate, the Biden crime family. Now not a superior thing for this country. Issues would be enormously completely different if President Trump became as soon as in place of work. 😢
i mediate USA can must unexcited purchase somethongs else love remedy and weapons