Laura Ingraham on Donald Trump’s announced China tariffs: “A lot of our friends are skeptical”
Ingraham: “I’m not trying to be a – you know, a naysayer here”
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From the May 12, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): China expert, someone you know well, Gordon Chang also said this is essentially a win for China and that all these Chinese goods are still going to come into our country where ours remain shut out from their markets. Mr. Ambassador, a lot of our friends are skeptical about this. I'm not trying to be a -- you know, a naysayer here, but what's going on?
JAMIESON GREER (GUEST): Well, again, remember President Trump, when he imposed tariffs on the world, China just being one part of that, the intent was to have tariff levels that drive down the trade deficit. Now, remember China really was the first target of President Trump in 2018. He imposed tariffs of about 25% on most goods coming in from China, including on steel and aluminum and a host of other high technology products. Those were still in place.
Earlier this year, he put on tariffs of 20% on fentanyl, then he put on the 34%. And to be clear, that 34% could still happen, right? China has now qualified for the pause, so it has a 10% tariff. It has a 90-day pause to negotiate with them. But, if things don't work out, those tariffs can go back up. I think the Chinese are really focused on a deal and they want to move forward constructively. And that's why they're now able to, you know, have the 10%, but all these measures from before are still in place. And so, when I think people --
INGRAHAM: So, just to be clear, you are counting your old --
GREER: Well, they apply.
INGRAHAM: Of course they are, and we support them 115%, we support them. But you're counting that, when you get to 50, you're counting the old tariffs that were in place that Biden didn't lift, correct?
GREER: That's right. Because we have a host of measures in place on China. That's exactly right. And so when you look at the world, President Trump has imposed significant tariffs on China, substantially more than they have. And this exercise over the past weekend was focused on that reciprocal tariff matter where the Chinese escalated so quickly and the president matched them. All the other measures, we have a lot of complaints about China. They have things that we do they don't like. Those are things to discuss in the future potentially.
INGRAHAM: Well, our goal is to get jobs in this country, President Trump's goal, jobs in this country and reduce that trade deficit. So, you know, that's what we have been focused on -- well, I have for like 25 years, so this is what I care about deeply.