Transcript of Press TV interview on the Trump tariffs

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PressTV: 0:00
Well now for more on this, joining us live from Brussels is Mr. Gilbert Doctorow, independent international affairs analyst. I'd like to thank you very much, Mr. Doctorow, for joining us. Let's start off with what President Trump mentioned, that Americans could experience some pain due to these new tariffs. What specific impacts could we foresee that American consumers, in terms of price and availability of the goods, actually experience?

Gilbert Doctorow, PhD: 0:24
Clearly, the impact of these new tariffs in Canada, Mexico and the proposed tariffs for Europe, which have not yet been specified, will affect given products. In given products, the additional costs-- in the case of Canada and Mexico, 25 percent-- will be passed along to consumers. However, let's look at the bigger picture. As experts have said in reviews of this issue, that are on all of the major media in Europe today, the actual impact overall on inflation in the United States will be two percent. Two percent. Now, that may be significant when the present US inflation rate is a total of two and a half pecent, yes.

1:18
But in the big order of things, that's not a figure that's going to change the nature of the American economy. And his intention is to reduce the sharp deficit in current account with these various trading partners. When he spoke about Europe, to my understanding, the deficit last year in balance of trade with Europe was $350 billion, which is a lot of money indeed. How this will be resolved by imposing stiff tariffs on European goods is not at all clear. We don't know the level, we don't know the speed with which it will be introduced.

2.00
But there's been a lot of noise. I'd like to look at [this] again, take a step back as to what Mr Trump is doing, the imposition of tariffs. Step away from free trade, which was part of the whole globalism ideology that he opposes. This is indicative of disruption. Mr. Trump stands for disruption in long-held American policies. And that regards foreign policy as well, of course.

And I believe that, though there's a lot of silence as to what exactly is going on, I think this opens hopes for a country like Iran that Mr. Trump will also disrupt the decades-long punishments that had been imposed on Iran going back to 1980, and will find a conclusive end to the confrontation with your country over the nuclear program and other issues.

So his being disruptive, yes, it unnerves our liberal media in the United States and in Europe, but it is a cause for encouragement and hope that his disruption will be intelligently applied and will force the review of many policies that the United States has held for decades that are counterproductive and harmful to world peace and harmful to the interest of the American public as well.

PressTV: 3:32
Well, Mr. Doctorow, on that point, what advice would you actually give these businesses that are concerned about the impact of these tariffs? I mean, how can they best prepare for potential challenges? Should they take advantage of the situation as you mentioned?

Doctorow: 3:47
Well, I don't think they have a choice. Of course, it's too early to give any advice that will be of great use to given businesses. The profile of imports coming from Europe, of course, is very broad. And some products can bear the additional cost to the American consumer because they are so valuable, and other products obviously will lose out, and those who are importing them and distributing them will suffer. Nonetheless, it's a big world, there are a lot of suppliers, and for many items, replacements will be found. I do know that the single biggest component in Canadian exports to America, for example, [is] energy. And to the best of our information, energy has so far been exempted from these tariffs.

PressTV: 4:38
I'd like to thank you very much for joining us, Mr. Gilbert Doctorow, independent international affairs analyst, joining us there live from Brussels. A pleasure to have you with us.