Kevin O’Leary: US must crack China with heavy tariffs

• Kevin O’Leary says US must impose higher tariffs on China.
• “You squeeze them because the Chinese only understand the stick,” O’Leary said on Fox News on Sunday.
• Former President Donald Trump says he will impose tariffs of more than 60 percent on China if elected.

“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary says the US needs to level the playing field with China by imposing high tariffs on the country.

O’Leary was on Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy” when he called for increased trade restrictions with China.

“I want to go to DEFCON 19 against China. I don’t like tariffs against anybody else, but I want to bring them to their knees with a flame to do us right and that’s why you use tariffs,” O’Leary. he told Gowdy on Sunday.

“You squeeze them because the Chinese only understand the stick. I’ve said it countless times, they understand the stick, they respect it, I give them the stick,” O’Leary added.

This is not the first time O’Leary has expressed his frustrations with the Chinese market. In August, O’Leary told Fox Business host Stuart Varney that he had a bad experience investing in China.

“I’m an investor. I have positions in China. And just so everyone knows why I’m so biased – they’ve been cheating me for the last 12 years,” O’Leary told Varney.

“I don’t have access to their courts. I can’t understand why they end up listing their companies without the same cost and compliance that I have to pay,” O’Leary added.

Representatives for O’Leary did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

O’Leary’s call for higher tariffs mirrors former President Donald Trump’s stance on the matter. Trump has said that if he returns to the White House, he plans to impose tariffs of more than 60 percent on Chinese goods.

“You know, obviously I’m not looking to hurt China. I want to get along with China. I think it’s great. But they really took advantage of our country,” Trump told “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo. in February.

The former president also proposed the possibility of imposing tariffs on American companies that move parts of their businesses abroad. In September, Trump threatened to impose a 200 percent tariff on farm equipment company John Deere if it moved some of its production to Mexico.

“They think they will make the product cheaper in Mexico and then sell it at the same price as before, you make a lot of money by getting rid of our labor and our jobs,” Trump told attendees at an agricultural policy roundtable in Smithton, Pennsylvania.

To be sure, Trump is not the only politician who has incorporated tariffs into his economic policy.

First, President Joe Biden kept most of Trump’s trade restrictions on China. The Biden administration went even further, imposing more tariffs and taxes on Chinese exports.

In May, the US government raised tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles from 25% to 100%, effectively blocking Chinese automakers from the US market.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against Trump for the presidency, criticized the latter’s push for higher tariffs.

During the Sept. 10 presidential debate, Harris said Trump’s tariffs are essentially a “sales tax” on American households.

Notably, Harris did not say whether he would keep Biden’s tariffs. But she said on her campaign website that she “will not tolerate unfair trade practices from China or any competitor that undermines American workers.”

“Vice President Harris will use targeted and strategic tariffs to support American workers, strengthen our economy, and hold our adversaries accountable,” a Harris campaign spokesman said in a statement to Foreign Policy magazine last month.