Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary said on Monday on Fox Business Network’s “Fox Business Live” that President-elect Donald Trump must take on China with tariffs.
Host David Asman said, “The difference between Canada and China is monumental. I mean, Trudeau came into the U.S., bowed at the feet of Donald Trump and folded like a cheap suit. I don’t sense the same kind of reaction coming from Xi. What’s gonna happen with Xi, they’re gonna play hardball?”
O’Leary said, “China’s a different issue completely to Canada or any other country. The only way, you’ve got to remember since 1999, since they came into the World Trade Organization, they have broken the rules with every country, including the U.S., every year. I’m an individual who does business there. My businesses have been absolutely screwed. I’ve said it countless times. They don’t play by the rules. There’s nothing reciprocal in our relations. The only way to make it work with the Supreme Leader, as I like to call him, is to inflict massive economic pain and risk on him by imposing tariffs on sectors where many Chinese people are employed.”
He added, “I have nothing against Chinese people, I have a lot against their government, and the only way to put him at risk is to say, look, if you want to mess with the largest economy you trade with, then we’re going to force a lot of people that make yoga mats or electronics or whatever else it is to be unemployed in your cities. They’ll be rioting in the streets, they won’t have any bread, and you will be out of power. That is the only way it’s going to work. So very selected, high impact weaponry, like tariffs, but you’ve got to be hardcore. He only understands the stick. That’s all he understands. Any weakness at all, he plays off, and he has done so for years. So I’m hoping this is the administration that fixes the problem. I have really been hurt by China and there are millions of other businesses in America that are the same boat I’m in.”
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