Trump’s New Trade Advisor An Outspoken China Critic

On Wednesday, President-Elect Donald Trump announced the creation of a new advisory board; The White House National Trade Council. Trump also announced his pick for head of the new council; Peter Navarro, economist author of “Death by China”. Tapping Navarro as head of the new NTC sends a not-so-subtle message to China. But how much power will Navarro really have?

Peter Navarro Is Trump's New Advisor And He Has A Few Words For China

By now, the entire U.S. is familiar with Donald Trump’s stance on China. The President-Elect believes the U.S. needs to renegotiate all deals with the Chinese Government. In fact, according to Trump, the U.S. needs to renegotiate all deals with every country. As such, the incoming president has formed a new White House National Trade Council that has one goal: to stop the “exodus of jobs” to foreign countries. Considering the U.S. has lost 5 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, the NTC may be a needed addition to Trump’s administration.

Trump campaigned as a businessman who is good at making deals. And it worked. Americans rallied behind his “Make America Great Again” promise, understanding the general principle of the campaign. But the specifics are a little scarier. Trump didn’t just choose China as a target. Granted, providing a foreign “enemy” (well, several) drew people to his cause, but China really does seem to be the winner in its trade relationship with the United States. For every one dollar in goods the U.S. exports to China, we import $4 in Chinese made goods. And while the U.S. trades with countries all over the globe, 20 percent of all imports come solely from China. There’s definitely in an imbalance in the trade relationship between the two countries. So it shouldn’t really surprise anyone that Trump chose an outspoken China critic in Peter Navarro to head the NTC.

But how much power will Navarro actually have?

The truth is, we’ll just have to wait and see. While he can’t draft proposals for new laws, Navarro can directly influence policy creation, and is being brought on by Trump to help shape the economy with those policies. Navarro has argued that Trump can boost the economy and balance the budget by 10%, allowing more drilling and coal burning to expand U.S. energy production, and renegotiating deals to reduce or eliminate the U.S. trade deficit – ideas which Trump championed during his campaign.

You can check out CNBC's coverage on why Navarro is a good appointment:

Navarro may be an extreme selection, but tempered by congress, Trump and Navarro may just be able to balance out the Chinese trade relationship.

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