唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统的贸易和制造政策主管彼得·纳瓦罗(Peter Navarro)称，白宫推迟和放弃对中国进口商品征收额外关税的决定是“给国家的圣诞礼物”，尽管此前曾声称这些关税对美国消费者没有任何影响。
纳瓦罗说:“昨天，特朗普总统向全国赠送圣诞礼物，宣布征收关税，这让我们的市场大幅上涨。”在采访中说《福克斯新闻》美国新闻编辑室星期三。这位贸易顾问曾因鼓励特朗普的关税倾向而受到许多主要经济学家的批评，他正试图解释为何在政府不会对中国商品全面征收新关税的消息传出后的一天，股市再次下跌。
纳瓦罗认为，“这基本上是美联储的问题，波动性。”他重复了特朗普用来解释市场下跌的流行批评。“这是他们造成的，”他继续说，起伏是由于美联储主席杰罗姆鲍威尔之前提高了利率。然而，鲍威尔宣布的上月底的降息。
纳瓦罗和特朗普在过去几个月里一再坚称，美国消费者没有感受到对中国商品征收关税带来的额外成本。被问到福克斯周日新闻主播克里斯·华莱士本月早些时候无论成本是否转嫁给了美国消费者，纳瓦罗的回答是:“错了。”
这位贸易官员辩称，中国制造商正在大幅降价，以弥补额外的进口关税，这使得美国企业支付的价格与去年夏天贸易紧张升级前基本相同。但正如华莱士所指出的，这一评估与美国主要金融机构的数据相悖，也与特朗普政府的报告背道而驰。华莱士解释说，特朗普劳工部的数据显示，“在宏观和微观层面，关税导致消费者价格上涨。”
高盛(Goldman Sachs月份发布的一份报告评估称:“美国关税成本完全落在美国企业和家庭身上，中国出口商收取的价格没有明显下降。”此外，最近发表的一项研究哈佛大学、芝加哥大学和美联储的学者发现，中国商品的关税成本“大部分落在了美国身上”，额外成本“几乎完全”转移给了美国进口商。
尽管如此，特朗普和纳瓦罗仍坚持认为关税只能由中国支付。本周，当政府宣布决定放弃并推迟受到威胁的额外关税时，这一说法略有改变。
特朗普说:“我们在圣诞节做这个。”告诉记者星期二。“以防一些关税对美国消费者产生影响，”他们会在假期额外购物。然而，总统接着转而说:“到目前为止，他们实际上还没有。”
自去年夏天以来，特朗普政府对2500亿美元的中国对美国出口产品征收关税。本月早些时候，奥巴马总统表示，白宫将继续对剩余的3000亿美元中国产品征收额外的10%关税，随着时间的推移，关税将提高到25%。
尽管这种威胁现在已经部分消退，但目前与中国的贸易战还没有明显结束。双方的贸易代表和谈判代表仍保持沟通，但一些分析师认为，在向华盛顿做出重大让步之前，北京方面更愿意静观2020年总统选举的进展。
TRUMP ADVISER CALLS REDUCED CHINA TARIFFS 'CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO THE NATION,' DESPITE CLAIMING THEY DIDN'T HURT CONSUMERS
Peter Navarro, who serves as President Donald Trump's director of trade and manufacturing policy, referred to the White House's decision to hold off and forego some additional tariffs on Chinese imports as a "Christmas present to the nation," despite previously claiming that the tariffs were not having any impact on American consumers.
"So, yesterday we had a big bump up on the market with President Trump's Christmas present to the nation, with his announcement on tariffs," Navarro said in an interview with Fox News' America's Newsroom on Wednesday. The trade adviser, who has been criticized by many leading economists for encouraging Trump's propensity for tariffs, was attempting to explain why stocks had again dipped one day following the news that the government would not implement the full amount of new levies on Chinese goods that the president had previously threatened.
"This is basically the Federal Reserve's problem, volatility" Navarro argued, repeating a popular criticism Trump has used to explain dips in the market. "They are causing this," he continued, saying the ups and downs were due to the reserve's chairman Jerome Powell previously raising interest rates. However, Powell announced a rate cut at the end of last month.
Navarro and Trump have repeatedly over the past few months insisted that U.S. consumers are not feeling the extra costs resulting from tariffs on Chinese goods. Asked by Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace earlier this month whether the costs were being passed on to American consumers, Navarro responded by saying: "false."
The trade official argued that Chinese manufacturers were decreasing prices significantly to compensate for the additional import levies, allowing U.S. businesses to pay essentially the same price as before trade tensions escalated last summer. But as Wallace pointed out, that assessment goes against the data of leading U.S. financial institutions and counter to reporting by Trump's own administration. Wallace explained that data from Trump's Labor Department showed that "on a macro and a micro level that tariffs cause consumer prices to rise."
A May report published by Goldman Sachs assessed that: "The cost of U.S. tariffs have fallen entirely on U.S. businesses and households, with no clear reduction in the prices charged by Chinese exporters." Additionally, a recently published study from scholars at Harvard University, the University of Chicago and the Federal Reserve found that the cost of tariffs on Chinese goods have "fallen largely on the U.S." with a "nearly complete" transfer of additional costs to American importers.
Nonetheless, Trump and Navarro had continued to insist that tariffs are only being paid by China. That claim changed slightly this week when the administration announced its decision to forgo and hold off on threatened additional tariffs.