China hawk Navarro on trade talks: Markets should be patient and optimistic

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‘What the markets have to do is give this process the requisite time,’ says White House trade adviser Peter Navarro

 

There were optimistic comments Tuesday from China hawk Peter Navarro.

 

Peter Navarro — the White House adviser known for his hawkish views on China — is adopting a soothing tone after Tuesday’s stock-market plunge that was blamed in large part on worries about the U.S.-China trade fight.

 

He offered the following comment as traders appeared to signal their doubts about Washington and Beijing’s ability to achieve a concrete deal to avoid further tariffs:

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‘What the markets have to do is give this process the requisite time. It’s silly for the markets to react to some kind of rumors in the air.’

Peter Navarro, White House trade adviser

 

Navarro’s remarks came Tuesday on Fox Business as the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -3.10% endured a 799-point drop. That tumble followed Monday’s 288-point rally that was attributed to a truce in the U.S.-China trade war after a key dinner meeting in Argentina. The Trump administration has announced a 90-day moratorium on raising tariffs.

 

Saturday’s dinner meeting “was highly successful,” Navarro said Tuesday. “We had the presidents of China and the United States have a very warm and constructive exchange, and we’ve set off with a clear path over the next 90 days to deal substantively with structural issues and market-access issues. And I think that people should be very optimistic about the possibilities here.”

 

The White House adviser emphasized that Chinese President Xi Jinping paid attention Saturday to 142 trade issues that the Trump administration has raised.

 

“It’s extraordinary that the president of China himself, rather than one of his minions, sat there for essentially 45 minutes, with extensive notes, and talked through a lot of the 142 items on the list and provided the American side with assurances that they would be addressed,” Navarro said.

 

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