Martin Capital CEO Rod Martin told Fox Business host Charles Payne Tuesday that China’s economic situation will only get worse despite reaching a trade deal with the United States, citing a “cascade effect” from a low fertility rate.
The Trump administration finalized a trade deal with China on June 26, which included a 55% tariff on Chinese products, while reducing Chinese tariffs on American products to 10%. Martin told Payne on “Making Money With Charles Payne” that the deal was a “surrender” by China, which faced a “tailspin.” (RELATED: ‘It’s Just About Right’: CNBC Host Who Launched Tea Party Lauds Another Good Jobs Number For Trump)
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“This morning, The South China Morning Post wrote an article and I thought the headline was really telling. China sets up economic monitoring looking to head off the worst case scenario but say tariffs and tumult have roiled China’s economy, but it’s not just this, right?” Payne asked Martin. “They’ve had this fertility crisis in the making for a long time. The housing crisis, the housing crisis has been an absolute disaster, and then of course there’s been all of these so-called bazookas, right? Every time they came out, Wall Street got excited and their economy is a basket case. To me, it feels like we have the advantage there. What are your thoughts?”
“You’re absolutely right and China’s problems just get worse from here. There’s a reason they agreed to a deal where we’re charging them 55% tariffs and they are charging us ten. I mean, this isn’t an accident. This is a surrender, and it only gets worse from here,” Martin responded. “You mentioned the fertility crisis. They are stabilizing, if they are stabilizing in the neighborhood of a total fertility rate of between 1.0 and 0.8. At the low end of that, they end up losing 75% of their population by the end of the century and it’s a cascade effect. The more young people you lose, the more young people who aren’t born later. So you have this ballooning elderly class being supported by a smaller and smaller working class and they can’t pull out of that tailspin. It’s just been too long.”
President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs via an April 9 post on Truth Social that also announced substantial increases on tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States, a week after he initially unveiled the duties on imports. Trump also ended the “de minimis” exception for packages shipped directly from China, slapping a tariff of $25 or 30% in an April 2 executive order.
Trump campaigned on imposing tariffs to help boost manufacturing in the United States during the 2024 presidential election.
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