Trillions down the drain. Trump’s top trade adviser remains unbothered
London
CNN
—
A top White House trade official has a message for world leaders caught in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump's tariff plans: it's "just the beginning."
Peter Navarro, the president's senior counselor on trade and manufacturing, wrote in an opinion piece in the Financial Times Monday that other countries, in addition to tariffs on US goods, have unfairly targeted American products with a raft of "non-tariff weapons," including laws targeting big US tech firms and "discriminatory" product standards.
"To those world leaders who, after decades of cheating, are suddenly offering to lower tariffs, know this: that's just the beginning," he wrote.
Trump's plans to impose punishing "reciprocal" tariffs on imported goods from dozens of countries have triggered massive drops in global stock markets in recent days.
Since the president announced the new levies last Wednesday, the S&P 500 has plummeted nearly 11%, which wiped $5.2 trillion off America's benchmark stock index alone. The rout has taken the US from a bull stock market to the brink of a bear market, defined as a fall of 20% from its recent peak, faster than under any president in modern history.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
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Based on Monday's closing level, the S&P 500 is down 17.6% from its record high on February 19. The tech-stock heavy Nasdaq Composite index has already crossed into bear market territory, shedding 22.6% between its all-time high on December 16 and Monday's close.
But the losses don't appear to have spooked Navarro, who referred in his article to Trump's tariff agenda as a "long-overdue restructuring" of an international trading system "rigged against America."
Navarro wrote that "Trump's reciprocal tariff doctrine does exactly what the (World Trade Organization) has failed to do: it holds foreign countries accountable."
Trump has strongly criticized what he describes as years of lopsided trade between America and other countries. According to the White House, America's trading partners have imposed steeper tariffs on US goods imported into their markets than the US does on theirs.
Navarro singled out America's trade deficit in goods, which hit $1.2 trillion in 2024, its highest level on record, according to official US data. He called the deficit a "crisis." In services trade, however, the US runs a surplus of $295 billion with the rest of the world.
Regardless, Navarro wrote that "America must, and now is, defending itself."
Among the so-called defensive measures are new tariffs of 34% and 20% soon to be levied on major trading partners China and the European Union, respectively.
For its part, the EU said Tuesday that Europe and China have a responsibility to "support a strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field." That's according to a statement released after Ursula von der Leyen, a top EU official, held a phone call with Chinese Premier Li Qiang to discuss EU-China relations.
If the Trump administration, which presides over the world's largest economy, is "defending" itself as Navarro says, it is also doing so against some of the world's poorest nations.
For example, Trump has whacked Madagascar, an island off the coast of Southern Africa where more than 80% of the population lives in extreme poverty, with a 47% tariff on top of the 10% baseline levy he has imposed on all countries.
And in contrast to Navarro's fondness for higher tariffs, Elon Musk, a top Trump acolyte and the world's richest man, said Sunday that he hopes for a "zero-tariff situation" between Europe and the US.
Musk doesn't appear to hold Navarro in high regard generally. In an exchange Saturday on X, which has since been deleted, Musk said about Navarro's academic background: "A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing." The Tesla CEO also added: "He ain't built sh*t."
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/08/business/navarro-tariff-stock-market-trillions-intl/index.html
