‘They’re Raping Us Too?’ Andrew Ross Sorkin Hammers Trump Commerce Secretary For Putting Tariffs On Countries With Trade Surpluses

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick joined CNCB’s Squawk Box on Thursday morning and was confronted by host Andrew Ross Sorkin, who asked why Trump slapped tariffs on countries that the U.S. has a trade surplus with.

After a discussion about the Trump administration trying to even the playing field when it comes to trade deficits, Ross Sorkin asked, “Being fair, what would you say to the United Kingdom, or what would say to Australia where we have a trade surplus, where they could look at us and say, we’re the winners of that competition and yet we are going to tariff them?”

“Well, look, they each have the lowest rate available, right? I mean, if you really dissect these, the trade numbers that are made publicly, I mean the United Kingdom part of their trade surplus is that they have the London Metals Exchange and they count the importing of bullion. I mean come on,” Lutnick replied, adding:

So I mean if you’re really dissecting these things, you realize they have a 20% VAT, okay and and these things but they work hard.

Ross Sorkin, not buying it, pushed back, “So we don’t have a trade surplus with them? They’re raping us too?”

“Well, if you looked at them and really studied it, you’d see they have a goods deficit with us, right?” Lutnick repeated.

Sky News published an analysis on Thursday also taking issue with the Trump tariff on the UK, titled, “Trump trade war: The blunt calculation that should have spared UK from reciprocal tariffs.”

Sky’s Gurpreet Narwan wrote that “the UK, with whom the US has a surplus (by its own calculations) of $12bn. By its own reciprocal tariff formula, the UK should be benefitting from a ‘negative tariff’ of 9%.”

“Instead, it has been hit by a 10% baseline tariff. Number 10 may be breathing a sigh of relief – the US could, after all, have gone after us for our 20% VAT rate on imports, which it takes issue with – but, by Trump’s own measure, we haven’t got off as lightly as we should have,” Narwan concluded.

Watch the clip above via CNBC.