Contrarian analyst Jim Cramer is rooting for China to back out of a new trade agreement — so President Donald Trump can negotiate a better deal.
CNBC's "Mad Money" host argued Thursday "this was the perfect moment to crack down on them because our economy's so strong, their economy isn't."
"I almost hope China reneges on its promises so that President Trump can ramp the tariffs back up and get an even better deal later on," he said.
Cramer noted China's practices of subsidizing domestic companies has negatively impacted America's manufacturing economy, so the United States should maintain current tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of imports from China to force it to change its unfair trading practices.
"The economists will tell you that tariffs raise the cost of living," he said. "They're not wrong — a tariff is a sales tax — but a lot of their predictions seem overblown. A lot of companies can do a lot to mitigate the damage.
"If we're going to trade jobs for cheap stuff, at the very least we should get a good exchange rate," he added.
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