Wilbur Ross, the U.S. secretary of commerce, told CNBC that it’s unfair his country is being affected by trade protectionism.
“We don’t think it’s inherent in a global trading system that one country, namely the U.S., absorbs in its deficit the cumulative trade surplus of the entire rest of the world,” he said Monday.
He blamed trade partners, such as China and Europe, for taking a protectionist approach that disproportional impacts world trade.
“The EU, China and Japan all talk about free trade and they all practice protectionism. Let me give you an example, automotive is the largest product category of our tariff deficit. Our tariff on autos is 2.5 percent; the EU’s 10 percent and China is 25 percent and in some cases a bit more. That’s not a level playing field,” Ross told CNBC.
“It’s the kind of thing we feel needs to be rethought,” he said.
