White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow admitted that numerous looming global trade disputes could jeopardize the robust U.S. labor market.
Asked by "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace whether tensions over trade could "jeopardize" job growth, Kudlow replied: "It might. I don't deny that. You have to keep an eye on it."
"It's possible. I don't think it has right now," Kudlow continued.
China warned the United States on Sunday that any agreements reached on trade and business between the two countries will be void if Washington implements tariffs and other trade measures, as the two ended their latest round of talks in Beijing, Reuters reported.
The United States and China have threatened tit-for-tat tariffs on goods worth up to $150 billion each.
Meanwhile, Kudlow said trade frictions between the United States and Canada are a “family quarrel,” brushing aside concerns expressed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an overreaction.
The Trump administration said on Thursday it was moving ahead with tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, ending a two-month exemption and potentially setting the stage for a trade war with some of America’s top allies, Reuters said.
Trudeau responded on Thursday by calling the tariffs an affront to the longstanding security partnership between Canada and the United States, and Canada announced retaliatory steps.
Trudeau, in an interview aired on Sunday by NBC’s “Meet the Press”, said it was “insulting” to hear the U.S. claim that Canadian steel and aluminum posed a national security threat.
“I think he’s overreacting,” Kudlow said of Trudeau on the “Fox News Sunday” program.
Kudlow said steel and aluminum tariffs on U.S. allies “may go on for a while” or “they may not,” because the matter is subject to negotiation.
Trump has been critical of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, saying it has harmed the United States economically. The three countries are engaged in renegotiation talks.
Meanwhile, Kudlow said while he hoped Trump doesn’t again comment on jobs numbers before they’re released publicly, Trump’s actions weren’t improper.
Trump was briefed Thursday night about the monthly employment report issued Friday morning in Washington and signaled in advance that the numbers were going to be favorable, breaking with past practice of presidents who avoided disclosure of market-sensitive information.
“Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning,” the president tweeted at 7:21 a.m. in Washington.
The Department of Labor reported at 8:30 a.m. that unemployment in the U.S. had dropped to its lowest level since 1969 as the economy added a higher-than-expected 223,000 jobs in May.
Wallace asked if Trump had “agreed that he won’t do it again.”
“By law and custom, I was just doing my job, and it was a great number, and I got ahold of him on Air Force One,” Kudlow said of his decision to share the jobs numbers with Trump on Thursday night.
“Has he done anything wrong? Of course he hasn’t. He didn’t put the numbers out. Other presidents have done this before,” said Kudlow
“Look, Presidents can say what they are going to say,” Kudlow continued. “If he’d put the number out, that would have been a much more difficult proposition. Will he do it again? Chris, I don’t know if he will do it again. I suppose I hope he doesn’t.”
“But, you know, just saying let’s look at the jobs numbers, all of America is looking at the job numbers. That’s a harmless tweet.”
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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