President Donald Trump did not mean to suggest that he’d trade away American jobs to try to persuade China to help the U.S. defuse rising tensions with North Korea, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Monday.
Ross, a billionaire who made his fortune investing in distressed assets, added in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that the U.S. is having productive talks with China on a number of issues.
Over the weekend, Trump told a CBS interviewer that “I believe that [Chinese] President Xi is working to try and resolve a very big problem, for China also. And that’s North Korea.” He was explaining at the time why he’s not pushing China on trade, despite his tough talk on the campaign trail.
“I think that, frankly, North Korea is maybe more important than trade,” Trump continued on on Sunday. “Trade is very important. But massive warfare with millions, potentially millions of people being killed? That, as we would say, ‘trumps’ trade.”
Last week on CNBC, Ross accused Mexico of taking advantage of NAFTA rules — saying Chinese goods dumped south of the border are finding their way to the U.S.
Two days earlier, Ross made the case for a new import tariff on Canadian lumber and warned Canada over what President Donald Trump considers unfair trading practices that are hurting American dairy farmers.
Despite bashing the North American Free Trade Agreement repeatedly during the presidential campaign, Trump last week said he’s going to try to renegotiate the deal.
The president, while reserving the right to change course, said he agreed not to dump the deal after talking with the leaders of Mexico and Canada in separate telephone calls.
Last week, Trump also authorized an investigation into whether a flood of aluminum imports into the U.S. from China and elsewhere jeopardize national security. The move is similar to one earlier in April on imported steel.