Kevin O’Leary Wants ‘400 Percent’ Tariffs on China: If You Threaten to Bankrupt Xi’s Economy, He Will Fly to Washington To Cut a Deal

Jones: “But here in the US, Trump appeared to double down by tapping Jameson Greer for U.S. trade representative, a key player in China trade negotiations in Trump’s first term. Shark Tank investor O’Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin O’Leary, Mr. Wonderful himself joins us now. So tell me this, Kevin, I’m not concerned about Canada or Mexico. They’re going to fold. They need the money. They don’t want to get in a war with us. But with China, how does that play out with the U.S. tariff policy? Because it’s the threat of the tariff, right?”
O’LEARY: “Yeah, China has not played by the rules since they came into WTO in 1999. And most administrations have just let it roll. Most of us who do business there realize it’s time to really set the record straight here because they cheat, they steal, they don’t protect IP. We can’t use their courts. And Xi is getting away with it because he thinks no one will stand up to it. My strategy here and what I would advocate for is to raise the walls so high that it forces him to the table here in Washington for a reciprocal deal, which we desperately needed. It’s not 25 percent. It’s 400 percent. You basically threaten to bankrupt his economy. And the only reason Xi gets to be the supreme leader is people are employed. If you threaten the core of his economy by shutting down access to the world’s largest economy —“
Jones: “People rise up.”
O’LEARY: “They rise up, they throw him out. And when he senses that coming, he’ll fly to Washington to cut a deal. It’s going to take very tough negotiations, but I’m happy to see this is going on. Mexico and Canada, different deal. We have a new trade agreement. The challenge for — Mexico is a brand new leader. So you see she’s feisty. She’s making her moves. That makes sense. Canada is a different situation. Trudeau’s on his way out. He’s at the end of a long mandate. In the parliamentary system when you can’t win a majority mandate, they throw you out. That’s happening to him now. The new prime minister, most likely, is Pierre Poilievre.”
Jones: “We love him.”
O’LEARY: “Well, he’s going to be negotiating this deal. So I would advise Trump’s team to bring him down to Mar-a-Lago and meet him now, because he’s already told the Canadian people what he’s going to do, get rid of carbon taxes, lift the ban on pipelines, be pro-business. That’s in sync with Trump’s mandate. So I think there’s going to be a great relationship between Canada and the U.S. over the next decade.”