Shark Tank star and millionaire investor Kevin O’Leary on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to stop with the gradual tariff increases on China and just jump to 400%.
As part of Trump’s ongoing trade war with China, the president has repeatedly increased the tariffs on Chinese imports. China has responded with its own retaliatory tariffs, resulting in both countries making their goods more expensive for the other. At the time of writing, the U.S.’s tariffs on China stood at 145%, while China’s tariffs on the U.S. were at 84%.
Earlier in the week, O’Leary suggested putting the “squeeze” on China once and for all by imposing 400% tariffs. After Trump’s most recent increase — up from 125% Wednesday — O’Leary encouraged the president should skip ahead to 400%.
“Why are we messing around? Just go to 400%,” O’Leary said on The Story with Martha MacCallum. “Get everybody on a plane. Let’s meet in Geneva, wherever. Look, what are you going to do, 25% every day until you’re at 400? Just go to 400! And then, it becomes impossible for them to access the American market, which is 39% of all consumption in the world and 26.1% of the world’s GDP. China cannot do without America — period. And the reason that [Chinese President Xi Jinping] would care about this and
O’Leary emphasized that his qualms were with the way the Chinese government does business and not the Chinese people.
“Now look, I want to be clear about this,” he continued. “I have no problem with the Chinese people, and I — along with millions of other investors — want to do business in China; but I’ve had it with getting screwed on IP. I’m done, and I want someone to go in there and level the playing field. That’s what I want, and that’s what I see; and I’m willing to take the volatility.”
Watch above via Fox News