U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross speaks with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” about how the trade war is affecting U.S. products, the political ramifications from the White House’s heated trade rhetoric and defends press reports about his investments.
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CNBC’s Interview With Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
Transcript
Well the purpose of the hearing was to let people vetted that and to discuss the problems that they’re funding with their constituents. I do think some of the things a little bit exaggerated the idea that Heintze would move all of its council facilities from the United States to Canada and Canada is one tenth the market size of United States seems a little bit of hyperbole to me. So some of them were a little bit extreme. Some were complaints from individual producers who were having trouble getting their exemptions cleared various mechanical things so it was a kind of typical hearing. But the more important thing is the economy in fact is booming. Jobs are up unemployment is down. Capital expenditures are up. Business confidence is up. So I don’t think there’s really a lot for anybody to complain about belief if we don’t know the some of the the eventual effects of some things in terms of job creation we wouldn’t be seeing it yet. Are job losses a year. You’re confident that the unintended consequences of helping certain industries with with X amount of workers is not going to actually end up being deleterious to a greater number of workers that are supporting that industry. That’s that’s really the main contention that that net net it could be you know you try to help one group and you end up actually hurting many more. That’s not going to happen. We won’t see it. No it’s not going to happen and the reason you won’t see it is the steel and aluminum tariffs are so small relative to the whole economy.
They’re a fraction of 1 percent of GDP and in terms of particular consuming industries it’s less than 1 percent on the price of a car it’s less than a penny on a can of Budweiser. Less than a penny on a can of Campbell’s Soup less than a penny on a can of Coke. Right. So the fact that there are more workers in those industries doesn’t really matter. I don’t think any of those industries is within a fraction of a penny of dissolution. In that same article as commerce secretary. The writer actually describes your attitude is as cavalier and breezy and they actually mention the Campbell’s soup can that you held up and it goes on to say something we want to just touch on here. The next thing is that what do you care. Forbes is reporting that you’re making out like a bandit with all of your personal holdings tied to the Chinese government and even some to Vladimir Putin.