Kevin O'Leary has admitted that he thinks President Trump isn't being harsh enough with his new tariffs when it comes to China.
The Shark Tank star spoke out about how he believes the President needs to act to hit China hard with huge tariffs in an attempt to get Chinese President Xi Jinping to negotiate with him. He reiterated that imposing tariffs on China is not about bringing manufacturing trade back to the US.
Instead, he believes it is more about forcing China to "play by the rules" and negotiate a trade deal. He even went as far as to suggest that the tariffs imposed should be more like "400%" in order to get China to comply.
Talking to TMZ, he said,"That's not really what the China narrative is about right now.There's some imbalances that have existed since 2020 when China joined the World Trade Organization and said they would abide by its rules... they never did.
"What they continued to do was steal IP. Many of from my companies and millions of other companies and then take these products and services and make them available at much lower prices in our own markets under different brands, on Ali Baba, on Amazon. But it gets worse, they actually use these technologies to advance their own economy at the expense of the work done by great American entrepreneurs."
Continuing to explain his stance, O'Leary added: "That's my whole point. And it's time to level that playing field.
"Very specifically, I want to be able to litigate in China the same way they are able to litigate in using our courts. I want them to abide by our rules on how their public companies are listed, and I want to be able to list mine over there," he added.
"I want to compete on a level playing field. I am happy to compete on a level playing field. But I think we are going to have to delist their companies because they won't even abide by our gap accounting rules.
"It's over. It's got to end and the way to do it is, I suggest it, and everybody has their own idea, but mine is simple - the tariffs go to 400% until Xi gets on a plane and comes to meet with Trump and all of this stuff gets negotiated."
He concluded, "China is not the same as any other country on the list. They steal, they cheat, and it has to end."
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