On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” U.S. Trade Representative Amb. Jamieson Greer reacted to the decline in GDP by stating that there was a “healthy” core GDP and good business investment and government spending falling is a factor.
Host Bret Baier asked, [relevant exchange begins around 5:20] “So, what do you say to the people who look at the declining GDP — just announced today — and the slowing of the economy, and they point to tariffs and they say this is going to hurt consumers? You’re the Trade Rep., what do you say to them in that concern?”
Greer responded, “So, there are a couple of things that I think about: So, when I look at today’s numbers, when I look at core GDP, which is really about fundamental demand, consumer spending, business spending, that was at 3%. That’s healthy. You look at business investment, that was 22%. That’s — when I think of tariffs, I think we’re creating a situation to create incentives to make here and not overseas. And when I see a 22% business investment number, I see that as, that’s having a good effect, and, again, and you mentioned, I think, earlier, government spending has dropped. Again, we’re trying to reduce government spending. And that has an impact on that. So, to these folks, I would say, let’s see what’s coming next. If you look back to term one, when President Trump deployed tariffs, again, in a historic way, we had strong growth, inflation went down. So, we know you can deploy tariffs in a way that can go alongside with growth, especially if you do tax and other things.”
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