Larry Kudlow - Let's make some good trade deals

All right, folks, a new playbook and a new pecking order. And that's the subject of the riff. After less than a week of Liberation Day, the White House seems to have changed both the playbook and the pecking order regarding its reciprocal tariff campaign. Perhaps the stock market plunge or all the phone calls from foreign leaders or both have contributed to a shift in Mr. Trump's strategy from non-negotiation to negotiation. That's called common sense. And as someone who strongly supports his reciprocal trade policy, I say this is a very good thing. In the Oval Office, he gave Prime Minister Netanyahu a signed copy of the art of the deal. How apocryphal. Now, last night in my interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, he talked about being a very busy chap in the next few months. Take a listen. I can tell you that there are 50, 60, maybe almost 70 countries now who have approached us. So it's going to be a busy April, May, maybe into June. And Japan is a very important military ally. They're very important economic ally. And the U.S. has a lot of history with them. So I would expect that Japan's going to get priority. All right. And besides the change in the negotiating playbook, it also looks like a big change has come in the pecking order. Suddenly, Treasury Man Besson appears to be the lead negotiator. Now, here's how Press Secretary Caroline Levin just put it. Just yesterday, President Trump held a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu here at the White House. Also yesterday, the president spoke with Japan's prime minister, who wants to negotiate as well. The president also spoke to the acting president of South Korea this morning. He has tasked Secretary Besson and U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer to lead these talks. Well, there was a time when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was a designated lead trade negotiator, but Besson seems to have replaced him along with Jameson Greer. This bodes well, I think, for a true approach to reciprocal trade deals. Both Besson and U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer, I think, are more flexible regarding the so-called reciprocal tariff first posted on Liberation Day. Those tariffs are way too high. That's because they rely way too much on somehow abolishing the U.S. trade deficit. It's a highly flawed and mistaken calculation. Think of it this way. If President Trump's economic plan of tax cuts, deregulation, liquid gold and reciprocal fair trade is put in place, the U.S. is going to grow faster than probably any major country in the world, which means that we will purchase more imports as we grow. The key goal for reciprocal trade, however, should be to open up export markets to the U.S. that have previously been closed either because of high tariffs or non-tariff barriers. In other words, market access should be the key objective, not abolishing the trade gap. The latter could come down if the former is successfully opened. But the only way to guarantee a trade balance in goods is a prolonged, deep recession. That means we wouldn't import anything from anywhere, and nobody wants that. Not all Trump's advisers may agree with this, but I believe the true purpose behind Mr. Trump's thinking is zero tariffs and zero non-tariff barriers. And when you look at the countries like India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea or Europe, there's plenty of work to be done to level the playing field for both tariff and non-tariff barriers. But the tariff gaps are not near as big as Mr. Trump's original list would suggest if calculated properly without the unnecessary goal of eliminating the trade gap. Now, let's go make some good trade deals. That's the order of the day, all right?