President Trump on Monday argued in a series of tweets that China will bear the brunt of the new tariffs his administration is imposing on the country, a day after one of his top economic advisers said both the U.S. and China would be hurt by the economic fight.
Trump wrote in the tweets that there was no “reason” for U.S. consumers to pay the tariffs, arguing in part that people in the United States could avoid paying the tariffs by buying products produced in other countries or in the United States.
{mosads}”Their is no reason for the U.S. Consumer to pay the Tariffs, which take effect on China today,” Trump wrote in one of the posts on Twitter.
In a second tweet, he said a consumer could “buy the product inside the USA (the best idea).”
He said companies would leave China for other countries, such as Vietnam, to avoid the tariffs.
Trump’s comments come just a day after his top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” said both China and U.S. consumers would be hurt by the tariffs.
“In fact, both sides will pay in these things, and of course it depends,” Kudlow responded after host Chris Wallace pressed him on how importers of Chinese products hit by tariffs will pay those tariffs.
Most economists agree that the costs of the tariffs will be paid by U.S. consumers in the form of higher prices on imported products from China.
Kudlow did say that China would suffer, too, from the fight, saying they would be hit by gross domestic product losses and a diminishing export market.
The Trump administration announced it would hike tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese products on Friday. Tariffs that were 10 percent are jumping to 25 percent.
It’s unclear how easy it would be for U.S. consumers to avoid higher prices coming because of the tariffs. It’s also not clear yet how prices will be effected, since the tariffs only went into effect on Chinese products leaving China on Friday.
China is also expected to retaliate against the U.S. by imposing higher tariffs on U.S. products sent to China.
Trump has repeatedly argued that past U.S. presidents have bungled negotiations with China and that his hard-edged effort will boost the U.S. economy.
In a subsequent tweet on Monday, he wrote that the U.S. economy’s solid first-quarter growth was aided by the tariffs on China.
“The unexpectedly good first quarter 3.2% GDP was greatly helped by Tariffs from China,” Trump tweeted. “Some people just don’t get it!”
There have been fears from economists, however, that the higher tariffs could end up being a drag on the economy in 2019.