China's only way to win a trade war with the United States is to get elements of the American public to push on President Donald Trump, so showing flexibility on some of the tariffs is a way to "relieve a little bit of pressure," author and China expert Gordon Chang told Newsmax on Sunday.
"He's had conversations, I'm sure, with Apple's Tim Cook and others about moving the supply chain out of China," said Chang on Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "Apple is already doing that."
And Trump, said Chang, likely saw that pulling back on tariffs on smartphones and other electronics could be done "without undermining his overall plan."
However, there is a risk behind that move, because it could embolden China to think that Trump is surrendering to them, he added.
"It's going to be a very finely balanced walk going forward from here," Chang said.
Mitch Feierstein, investor and author of "Planet Ponzi," who was also on Sunday's broadcast, commented that Trump's exemptions on electronics, some of the biggest imports from China, were done because Trump is using tariffs like a "carrot on a stick."
This especially holds true, Feierstein said, because "China cheats on everything."
"They just don't make fake products like fake Gucci, fake Rolexes, and all different types of stuff," he said. "What they do is, for example, with the steel market, they will sell steel below cost to put everybody else out of business. So they enter the markets and they give an unfair advantage to stuff that's coming out of China."
China's entire economy, meanwhile, is based on exports, said Feierstein.
"They need to deal with us and they need to deal with us on our terms," he said. "We're going to go back to parity. That's all we want. We want a fair deal."
Meanwhile, it will likely take at least 18 months before Trump's moves kick in to help the economy, but "it's going to pay off decades from now," said Feierstein.
"We unfortunately place too much reliance on imported goods from China," he said. "Just like their economic data that comes out, you can't trust that data."
Chang, meanwhile, agreed that Trump's moves will be good for the economy.
"We've seen the markets go up and down," he said. "The volatility is off the charts. We need to have this settled down a little bit, and I think that it will, as these trade deals are negotiated with these 75-plus countries."
But eventually, what will happen is that countries will come to the table on trade and Trump will sign up deals, said Chang. "The markets will cheer," he said. "Long-term, this is, as Mitch said, really important for the United States."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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