{ "error": "", "type": "text", "title": "Remarks by President Trump at the Economic Club of New York - China, Japan, and South Korea", "slug": "remarks-by-president-trump-at-the-economic-club-of-new-york-china-japan-and-south-korea", "text": "
\"And I will tell you, when I signed \u2014 that was another one \u2014 Clean Waters of the United States \u2014 well, the Paris Accord, too \u2014 and I said, \u201cThis is going to take guts.\u201d I just closed my eyes and I signed it. (Laughter.) I got one day of a big hit from some of the radical-left newspapers. And then after that, everybody thanks me. They thank me so profusely. You\u2019re talking about trillions and trillions of dollars of destruction would have been done to our country with the Paris Climate Accord.<\/p>\n
And it is so unfair. It doesn\u2019t kick in for China until 2030. Russia goes back into the 1990s, where the base year was the dirtiest year ever in the world. India, we are supposed to pay them money because they are a developing nation. I said, \u201cWe\u2019re a developing nation, too.\u201d (Laughter.) \u201cWhy aren\u2019t we\u2026\u201d Under the WTO, China is called a \u201cdeveloping nation.\u201d So we wrote them a letter recently; Larry knows it. I\u2019m not sure Larry liked the idea too much, but he went along with it. (Laughter.) We wrote them a very tough letter, Larry, and we said \u2014<\/p>\n
MR. KUDLOW: (Inaudible.)<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: What?<\/p>\n
MR. KUDLOW: I wrote the letter.<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, Larry wrote it. (Laughs.) He said \u2014 (Laughter.) Boy, you hopped on that bandwagon quickly, didn\u2019t you? (Laughter.) That\u2019s okay. But we wrote them a letter and we said, much more strongly than the letter, that \u2014 not fair to have China as a developing nation. One of the reasons they\u2019ve taken advantage of us is because of that. And we\u2019re considered the big, fat cow. And no longer. No longer. We have a lot of things to work out.<\/p>\n
And I will say this: Because they know that I\u2019m very tentative on the WTO, we\u2019re winning cases for the first time. We just won a 7.5 billion-dollar case. We never won cases. They\u2019d rule against us because they said, \u201cHey, don\u2019t worry about the United States. They\u2019re the stupid people. Don\u2019t worry. Rule against them.\u201d Keep rule- \u2014 we had case after case. Now, we\u2019re winning cases, because they really think that I\u2019ll do something very powerful, which we have the right to do. And they\u2019re right when they think that way. And we\u2019re winning a lot of cases at the WTO level, we never \u2014 that we never even would have thought of winning before.<\/p>\n
America is now the number-one producer of oil and natural gas on the entire planet Earth. Net energy imports \u2014 (applause) \u2014 net energy imports \u2014 this is so great \u2014 set a historic low; it\u2019s a 58-year low, but that\u2019s only because they only go back 58 years, meaning, I assume if it\u2019s low now, it\u2019s lower than it used to be, unless something happened that\u2019s very strange back then. But it\u2019s at a historic low. We are now a net exporter of natural gas, and we recently became a net exporter of crude oil and petroleum products for the first time in our country\u2019s history. It\u2019s a big thing. (Applause.)<\/p>\n
According to the Council of Economic Advisers, the astonishing increase in production, made possible by the shale revolution, saves Americans $2,500 for a family of four in lowering electric bills and prices at the pump. And the number is actually now even higher than that.<\/p>\n
My administration is also restoring the principle that to be a strong nation, America must be a manufacturing nation. These are great jobs. These are brilliant, great people that know how to manufacture. These people were under-appreciated and under-taken care of. But we take care of them. We cherish them.<\/p>\n
Past leaders wrote off American manufacturing as dead, but their policies were the ones that were actually killing it. We killed manufacturing. That\u2019s why we were losing all those jobs, because we made it impossible to manufacture. We opened it all up.<\/p>\n
After losing \u2014 and this is a number that\u2019s hard to believe, and I\u2019ve been saying it for three years, and I know it\u2019s right because the fake news has never corrected me. If it was wrong, it would have been headlines: \u201cTrump made a mistake.\u201d But they can\u2019t say it. After losing 60,000 \u2014 can you believe that? \u2014 factories under the previous two administrations, America is now gaining over 10,000 brand-new, beautiful factories, and many, many more than that want to come back in. Because under my administration, we\u2019re producing jobs and incentives for these companies to come back. I\u2019m calling, as an example, Prime Minister Abe of Japan. And I say, \u201cMr. Prime Minister, Shinzo, we have a tremendous problem. We have big deficits with your country. You\u2019ve got to start building plants.\u201d He\u2019s building many, many car plants now in the United States that he would\u2019ve never built here if you didn\u2019t have this kind of a President. And he\u2019s very happy to be doing it.<\/p>\n
But they\u2019re all coming back to the United States. They want to be where the action is. Very simple: They want to be where the action is. This is where the action is. There\u2019s nobody close. There\u2019s no country close.<\/p>\n
When I meet with the leaders of countries, as they come in \u2014 kings and queens and prime ministers and presidents and dictators \u2014 I meet them all. (Laughter.) Anybody who wants to come in \u2014 dictators, it\u2019s okay, come on in. Whatever is good for the United States. We want to help our people. But the first thing they say to me almost always: \u201cCongratulations on your economy.\u201d They all say it. \u201cCongratulations, it\u2019s incredible what\u2019s happened to your country. It\u2019s incredible what\u2019s happened to your economy.\u201d First thing they say in almost every instance.<\/p>\n
But central to this comeback is a series of bold initiatives to reform a broken system of international trade. We want thriving commerce with as many countries as possible, but trade must be fair, and to me, it must be my favorite word, \u201creciprocal.\u201d It\u2019s not reciprocal. We\u2019re getting it to be much more reciprocal.<\/p>\n
The American market is the most valuable and coveted market anywhere in the world. Those who want access must play by the rules, and they have to respect our game and our laws, and they have to treat our workers and businesses fairly \u2014 not the way they\u2019ve been treating them over the last 25 years. America will not be taken advantage of anymore. (Applause.)<\/p>\n
Many countries charge us extraordinarily high tariffs or create impossible trade barriers. Impossible. And I\u2019ll be honest: European Union \u2014 very, very difficult. The barriers they have up are terrible. Terrible. In many ways, worse than China.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re working on legislation known as the United States Reciprocal Trade Act, meaning quite simply: What\u2019s good for them is good for us. If they want to charge us, we charge them. It\u2019s a very simple thing. Even people that aren\u2019t well versed in what we all do say \u2014 I went to a couple of senators \u2014 went to Lindsey Graham. I said, \u201cLindsey, let me ask you. What do you think of that? They\u2019re charging us 100 percent. We\u2019ll charge them\u2026\u201d \u201cThat makes sense to me.\u201d It really does. It makes sense to everybody because it\u2019s very unfair the way we\u2019re treated by certain countries. There are certain countries that the average tariff is over 100 percent. And we charge them nothing. And then they call it \u201cfair trade.\u201d That\u2019s not fair trade; that\u2019s stupid trade. (Laughter.) Of course, this will be subject to regaining the House, to be able to do these things.<\/p>\n
Nowhere has the change in U.S. strategy been more vital or dramatic than in our dealings with respect to China. Before my election, Washington politicians stood by and did nothing while China ransacked our companies, stole our intellectual property, subsidized their industries at the expense of ours, and dumped their products in a deliberate strategy to close American factories all across our land.<\/p>\n
For many years, Americans \u2014 leaders have just sat back. Maybe they didn\u2019t understand what was going on. It\u2019s impossible to believe that. But they just let it happen. And it\u2019s gotten worse and worse and worse. And now we\u2019ve changed it. It\u2019s changed a lot. I\u2019m sure you haven\u2019t noticed, but it\u2019s changed a lot.<\/p>\n
In particular, since China\u2019s entrance into the World Trade Organization in 2001, no one has manipulated numbers better or taken advantage of the United States more. And I won\u2019t use this word, \u201ccheated.\u201d I will not say the word, \u201ccheated.\u201d But nobody has cheated better than China, but I will not say that. (Laughter.) We\u2019ll say that off the record, okay? And there\u2019s only about 600 cameras back there. In fact, that is a big group up there. Good. I hope you use it because it\u2019s true. And they understand it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n
And I don\u2019t blame China, by the way. I blame our leaders, because we should\u2019ve been doing what they were doing. They did it to use. We didn\u2019t do it to them. We were defenseless. We had no leadership. This was for a long time. This is long beyond the Obama administration.<\/p>\n
So I don\u2019t blame them. I said this to President Xi. I was making a big speech in China. I had 5,000 people in front of me and I was talking about how bad China was. And I said, \u201cThis is not going over well.\u201d (Laughter.) I was in Beijing \u2014 this massive hall. And I looked down at President Xi. He was sitting right where Larry is. He was not as imposing a figure as Larry Kudlow, but he was quite imposing. (Laughter.) And I said \u2014 I said, \u201cYou know, I think he\u2019s getting very angry.\u201d And I then I realized, \u201cHmm, how do we save this? This is going to be a disastrous afternoon.\u201d (Laughter.) And I said, \u201cBut I don\u2019t blame China. I blame our leaders.\u201d And then I realized, that\u2019s true. I blame our leaders for allowing it to happen. I\u2019ve told that to you and many people many times.<\/p>\n
But the theft of American jobs and American wealth is over. They understand that. My administration has taken the toughest-ever action to confront China\u2019s trade abuses. We are taking in billions and billions of dollars in tariffs that China is paying for. We\u2019re not paying. China is paying because they\u2019re devaluing their currency to such an extent and they\u2019re pouring tremendous amounts of cash into their system.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re having their worst year in more than 57 years, more than half a century. Their supply chains are cracking very badly, and they are dying to make a deal. We\u2019re the ones that are deciding whether or not we want to make a deal. We\u2019re close.<\/p>\n
A significant phase one trade deal with China could happen. It could happen soon. But we will only accept a deal if it\u2019s good for the United States and our workers and our great companies, because we\u2019ve been hit very hard. We\u2019d have deficits for many years \u2014 go back many years \u2014 $500 billion a year. Not million. Five hundred million dollars a year is a lot. Five hundred billion dollars a year in trade deficits with China. And we have it with many other countries, just not nearly as large. China probably makes up almost 60 percent of our deficits.<\/p>\n
We also renegotiated the last administration\u2019s failed trade agreement with South Korea. It was a terrible agreement. Our new agreement doubles the number of American cars that can be sold to South Korea under the U.S. standards, and it keeps America\u2019s 25 percent import tax, known as the \u201cchicken tax,\u201d on small trucks, which was all ready to disappear. It was going to disappear.<\/p>\n
The deal from the previous administration was projected by them to add 250,000 jobs, and they were right. It did add 250,000 jobs. Unfortunately, the jobs went to South Korea, not to the United States. That\u2019s what we got stuck with.<\/p>\n
We also struck a deal, which is historic, with Japan \u2014 it\u2019s just partial because we\u2019re having very tough negotiations and strong negotiations with Japan \u2014 to substantially reduce barriers for American agriculture and facilitate $40 billion in digital trade and agricultural purchases. That deal was signed, and it\u2019s a great deal but it\u2019s only phase one of the Japan deal, too. [...]<\/p>
One of the things I was able to do with China: As an example \u2014 we\u2019ve taken in \u2014 I mean, we\u2019ll soon be up to $100 billion in tariffs. And you haven\u2019t seen inflation and you haven\u2019t seen, in many cases, price increases.<\/p>\n
Our farmers \u2014 because I have a very good relationship with our farmers \u2014 our great American farmers \u2014 I call them \u201cpatriots\u201d \u2014 they were hurt very badly by China because China targeted them because they were my vote. The whole middle of the country \u2014 it\u2019s a beautiful thing to see, I will say. But they targeted them.<\/p>\n
And I said to Sonny Perdue, our Secretary of Agriculture, \u201cSonny, how much is it?\u201d And he said, \u201cThe year before last, it was $12 billion, and this year it\u2019s $16 billion in orders.\u201d I said, \u201cThat\u2019s okay, Sonny. We\u2019re going to give them $28 billion. We\u2019re going to take it right out of the tariffs. And, hopefully, the farmers will say, \u201cThank you very much, China.\u201d<\/p>\n
And we spread \u2014 distributed, two years, $28 billion around to China \u2014 around from China, into our farmers and farms and ranchers and all of the people that were targeted. So, I would say, in a rough manner, \u201cby China.\u201d I would say in a very rough manner. And now China is coming back. And as you know, they\u2019re already starting big buys \u2014 very big buys. And the farmers are very happy.<\/p>\n
The incredible thing with the farmers is they don\u2019t want a subsidy, they don\u2019t want a handout. But in this case, I thought it was something that I wanted to do, and I was able to do it \u2014 $28 billion. And after that, we had tremendous amounts of the billions left over that we could use. Actually, we could use it for tax reductions. We could distribute it to people.<\/p>\n
And again, if we don\u2019t make a deal with China \u2014 look, I had a deal. We had a deal. This gentleman can tell you, we were so close to a deal. The hard points were negotiated: opening up China, intellectual property, all sorts of tremendous penalties.<\/p>\n
And then, one day, we get a call \u2014 seven months ago, we get a call, they\u2019d like to see us. And we saw them, and they explained why they can\u2019t do three or four things that were already agreed to. And I said, \u201cOkay. Hey, look, I\u2019m in the real estate business in New York. I\u2019ve heard that before.\u201d (Laughter.) Sadly. It wasn\u2019t like, \u201cOh, gee, I\u2019m so shocked.\u201d But I was a little surprised. You know, it\u2019s China. They\u2019re not supposed to do that. But they did. And I\u2019ll tell you what: I\u2019ll bet you they wished they didn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n
Then I put on 25 percent tariffs on everything coming in \u2014 on the first $250 billion of product. It\u2019s going to 15 percent very soon. And I tell this to Larry, I tell it to everybody: If we don\u2019t make a deal, we\u2019re going to substantially raise those tariffs. They\u2019re going to be raised very substantially.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s going to be true for other countries that mistreat us too, because we\u2019ve been mistreated by so many countries. It\u2019s hard to believe. There are a few that haven\u2019t mistreated us. And, you know, I can\u2019t blame them, if you can get away with it. This is why I blame our past leadership. I don\u2019t know how it\u2019s gotten this way. So, we\u2019ll have a trade deficit of \u2014 over the last, you know, long period of time, close to $800 billion. Whoever heard of this? Eight hundred billion dollars of trade deficit. It\u2019s supposed to be the other way around.<\/p>\n
So, we\u2019re changing it rapidly. It takes a while. You have statutory constraint. You have \u2014 in some cases, you take it to one phase, and then you have to, by law, wait six months before you can go to phase two, and phase three, and phase four. But we\u2019ve made a tremendous amount of progress. And we are respected on \u2014 on many fronts.<\/p>
\"<\/p>", "quote": null, "citation": "