U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will be in charge of 90 days of fast negotiations with Chinese officials on settling trade disputes, White House economic adviser Peter Navarro said.
“He’s the toughest negotiator we’ve ever had at the USTR and he is going to go chapter and verse and get tariffs down, non-tariff barriers down and end all these structural practices that prevent market access," Navarro said during an interview Monday with National Public Radio.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin later told CNBC that President Donald Trump is ultimately in charge of the negotiations after coming to an agreement with his counterpart Xi Jinping.
Trump earlier Monday jolted global auto stocks with a claim that China agreed to “reduce and remove” tariffs on imported American-made cars, raising more questions about the outcome of his meeting with Xi.
Trump gave no other details in his late-night tweet, which came shortly after he agreed with Xi to a truce in the trade war during a meeting at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. In a briefing in Beijing a few hours later, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang declined to comment on any car tariff changes.
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