BURST“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary argued during a recent interview that President Trump’s tariffs against China are necessary because the U.S. has to train Beijing “like a puppy” to not “steal” intellectual property (IP).
“it's not just trade tariffs. It's you cheating and stealing. We’re tired of it and you've got to stop. They actually don't care that they steal IP they don't. They think it's okay,” O’Leary said during a Friday morning appearance on CNN.
“It's almost ... the analogy is like a puppy when you're training it. You stick the nose in the poo poo, and you roll up a newspaper and you smack it on their rear end,” the Canadian businessman told host Jim Sciutto “That's what we got to do here in China. I hate to use that analogy, but that's where we're at after 20 years. They have not understood how this works.”
Trump has upset global trade's status quo with his “Liberation Day” tariffs, targeting China and other countries around the world with a flat 10 percent import tax. He also instituted steeper reciprocal tariffs against dozens of nations.
The trade shakeup has lead to instabilities in the global financial markets and worries for consumer at home that the U.S. might could be plunging into a recession. Trump paused tariffs against most countries on Wednesday, excluding China for which he increased the duty by 125 percent. That was on top of the 20 percent tariff already in place.
China fired back against the 145 percent tax Friday morning, raising the tariff on goods coming from the U.S. to 125 percent, which is set to kick in on Saturday.
Earlier this week, O’Leary said he favors slapping 400 percent tariffs on China, accusing the world’s second-largest economy of not abiding by the rules of the World Trade Organization, which the country joined in 2001.
“This is not about tariffs anymore. Nobody has taken on China yet — not the Europeans, no administration for decades,” O’Leary said on Tuesday. “As someone who actually does business there, I’ve had enough.”
The Canadian entrepreneur said on Friday that he wants the China’s President Xi Jinping to come to the negotiating table “whereever it is” and hammer out a fresh deal with the U.S.
“I encourage this to happen, because I don't want this trade war with China. I want to trade with the Chinese people, but they steal our IP, like they don't even care,” O’Leary said.