Ex-Trump Adviser Cohn Says China Tariff Cuts Would Ease Inflation 

(Bloomberg) -- Gary Cohn, a former economic adviser to President Donald Trump, urged the Biden administration to lift tariffs on Chinese goods to help ease inflation.

Cohn, now vice-chairman at International Business Machines Corp., quit his role in 2018 as the Trump administration began slapping tariffs on a broad range of Chinese products to punish Beijing for its alleged theft of intellectual property. Beijing denies the allegations.

President Joe Biden has left those duties in place as leverage in talks to persuade China to abide by commitments in the trade deal Trump signed in early 2020.

Read More: Democrats' Muscle-Flexing on Inflation Meets No-Easy-Fix Reality

“Tariffs are just making that more expensive, which leads to a bigger issue politically,” said Cohn, an ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. president, referring to rising prices. Americans are experiencing the strongest inflation since the early 1980s, with the consumer price index climbing 7.5% in January from a year earlier.

He spoke at the TPM22 Conference produced by The Journal of Commerce in Long Beach, California, on Monday. 

Cohn said he's concerned that proposals for a gas-tax holiday to bring relief to consumers could hinder financing for Biden's infrastructure investment package. 

Some Congressional Democrats have been pushing for a suspension of the gasoline tax.

“We literally just passed an infrastructure bill in the United States, which is to fix roads, bridges,” he said. “The gas tax goes to fix roads, bridges, so some will have to explain that to me later. Why would we do that?”

Cohn attributed the ongoing supply-chain troubles to disruptions from the pandemic, especially the increase of goods purchases from people being stuck inside and investing in their homes.

“It clearly starts with some of the tariffs. But I'm not gonna blame the tariffs,” at least not entirely, Cohn said.

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