On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “CNN Newsroom,” White House Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro responded to a question on the White House claiming tariffs are about fentanyl and migration and returning jobs by stating that “All of those things can be true at the same time, and you have to, like, pick what the objective is.” And that the current actions with regards to Canada, Mexico, and China are about fentanyl, the reciprocal tariffs on April 2 are to deal with the barriers other nations have and tariffs will also generate revenue.
Host Jim Sciutto asked, “First, I want to talk about what the goal is of the trade war, because you’ve called it a drug war, … a border invasion war. Trump has also, at different times, talked about drug trafficking, migration, but also a desire to return jobs to the U.S. Which is it? What is the goal?”
Navarro responded, “All of those things can be true at the same time, and you have to, like, pick what the objective is. The action we’ve taken against Canada, Mexico, and China is done under what’s called IEEPA, the International [Emergency] Economic Powers Act, to address an emergency, and the emergency that we’re facing is a border invasion, which created a great strain on our economy, because it drives down wages and takes jobs of people. It leads to the robbing, raping, and murder of our citizens, and, most important, is, it has led to a fentanyl crisis that kills over 100,000 Americans every year. … So, the point is, those tariffs are designed to do the emergency. Now, with respect to what’s coming on April 2, the reciprocal tariffs, that is to deal with a decades-long problem of unfair trade that’s characterized across every major trading partner as higher tariffs and higher non-tariff barriers than the United States.”
Later, Navarro added that “tariffs will be tax cuts”, will generate revenue, “have already attracted almost $2 trillion in investment.” And will bring back manufacturing jobs.
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