President Donald Trump has "real and legitimate" concerns about China, former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, who advised former President Barack Obama, said Monday.
"We ought to stipulate that the concerns that the Trump administration has raised about China are real and legitimate," said Froman, who served as Obama's trade representative from June 2013 until Trump's inauguration, on CNBC's "Squawk Box."
"I think the question is whether the Trump administration is approaching it in a way that's most likely to achieve success," he added.
Trump has repeatedly accused China of exploiting unfair trade deals with the U.S., and recently announced new tariffs on hundreds of Chinese exports, to which China responded with tariffs of its own on U.S. exports.
China's tariffs "amount to about three-tenths of a percent of our GDP. So, it's hardly a life-threatening activity," Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC last Wednesday. "It's relatively proportionate to the tariffs we put on based on the intellectual property."
"I think they'd like to clear the decks," said Froman. "But to be frank, I think they're running out of time. Because right now, they're just talking about an agreement in principle."
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