i m not privy to the details. that sounds good but it s a symbiotic relationship. we can t have one side saying this is what we re going to do, throw you these things and that s good with you. i think gm has been pretty good about working with folks so it has to be similymbiotic. hanging over this is the president s trade war with china. new tariffs set to be going into place on cars, on auto parts and i wonder what you think or hearing from folks, the impact of that is on this type of negotiation. i think it adds to the greater conversation of instability. in michigan we have been hit particularly hard by the tariffs. the supply chain is really hit and hear people talking about that. anyone in business will tell you in order to have good planning you got to have stability and we have just not had that with the back and forth. whether for the farmers or the auto workers, supply chain. it just we all understand the
since the 1980s. at the same time, japan counters and says, look, a majority of our military equipment, we buy, from the united states. so we do expect all of this to come up in the discussion, between president trump and prime minister abe, along with the threat of tariffs from the united states, on auto parts, and autos from japan, also agriculture, president trump wants to remove some of the barriers on u.s. agriculture products to japan, and then of course, there is defense, all of these talks happening against the backdrops of renewed short-range missile testing in north korea. so there is going to be a lot in the discussion but at the same time a senior administration official is downplaying anything big, substantive, coming out of this visit, basically saying it is more about ceremony than substance. president trump will be the first foreign leader to meet with the emperor and i m told by u.s. officials that abe has really played this up, to president trump, saying this is a hug
comment about protectionism and i hear this comment about trade war and in many ways we are in a trade war. only one side s fighting. the president just released just did a filing with the world trade organization on auto parts. ten years ago we had a $1 billion trade deficit with china bilateral. today it s $10 billion and that s not that s not based on chinese efficiency and productivity, it s based on a whole lot of subsidies in other ways which the obama administration has figured out. the reason it won t be a trade war is that the fears that sort of the outsourcers always try to stoke in the american public and among the media and certainly in congress is that we are such a huge market for china. something like more than 1/4 of chinese exports come to the united states. if you have a customer that s unhappy with you and that customer buys 20 or 30 or 40% of your products, you re not just going to turn your back, you re