This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – As the Trump administration continues to defend tariffs on products from other countries, one of the president's top advisers is sounding the alarm about a "far more important" economic threat to America.
The danger, according to Peter Navarro, the White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, is non-tariff cheating.
Navarro appeared on "Sunday Morning Futures" on the Fox News Channel, and told guest host Jackie DeAngelis: "The reality here is that institutionally, the international trade system is designed to cheat us.
"They have systematically higher tariffs on us, but more importantly, and far more importantly, it's the non-tariff cheating.
"It's the VAT taxes (value-added taxes), it's the currency manipulation, the dumping, the export subsidies, the fake standards that keep our agricultural products out and keep our cars out of Japan. It's all these things that foreign countries do that are designed explicitly to cheat us and are sanctioned by the World Trade Organization.
"So President Trump says no more, no mas. Ain't happening on his watch. And that's where we're headed, we're heading towards a strong America that makes things again."
Navarro indicated the situation is "not a negotiation."
"This is a national emergency based on a trade deficit that's gotten out of control because of cheating," he explained. "It's like every country around the world cheats us."
"But I want to just say to the world here, if you want to come and talk to us, don't say you want to lower the tariffs and be done with it. It's the non-tariff cheating.
"Stop manipulating your currency. Stop dumping stuff in. Europe, take your 19% VAT tax down to zero. Don't put these fake agricultural standards that keep out our pork and our dairy and our chickens.
"And Vietnam, don't dump shrimp into our markets and put the good people of Louisiana on our coast out of work. This is what people have to understand. It's the non-tariff cheating that matters the most, and when they want to talk to us, come talk to us about that."
"We're always willing to listen. That's what Donald Trump does best."
Navarro also stressed the importance of having the U.S. auto industry revitalized.
"What President Trump wants to do is turn Detroit back into Detroit, instead of having Detroit in Mexico now like they have it," he said.
"If we don't have a solid auto industry when we have problems in the world, we're gonna be speaking some other language. I mean if we didn't have the auto factories of Detroit during World War II, we'd be speaking German east of the Continental Divide, Japanese west.
"We won that war with our military might and we have to defend ourself. We have to defend our jobs … This whole idea that we can't be a manufacturing nation, the only reason we're not, Jackie, is that the world cheats us."
When asked about drops in the stock market last week in the wake of Trump's tariffs, Navarro said: "The smart strategy is not to panic, just stay in, because we are gonna have one of the biggest booms in the stock market that we've ever seen under the Trump policies.
"We will find a bottom in this market quickly. We will hit 50,000 on the Dow easily by the end of [Trump's] term."
Navarro also said Elon Musk is only looking after his own interests after the DOGE leader took a shot at him on X and seemed to break with the Trump administration on tariffs.
"Elon when he's in his DOGE lane is great, but we understand what's going on here," Navarro indicated.
"Elon sells cars. And he's in Texas, assembling cars that have big parts of that car from Mexico, China, batteries that come from Japan or China, the electronics come from Taiwan, and he's simply protecting his own interests as any business person would do. We're more concerned about Detroit building Cadillac with American engines. … There's no rift here."
