The White House appeared to take a further step toward embracing the border-adjustable tax plan on Friday when Peter Navarro, director of the White House’s new National Trade Council, told CNBC there was “no question that we need a border-adjustable tax of some kind.” The tax would have to be flexible, he said without providing details, but added: “Paul Ryan and [House Ways and Means Chairman] Kevin Brady have a bill that we might very well be able to work with.”
[Megan Cassella| January 30, 2017 |Politico]
Asked about concerns that such a tax would force the cost of goods to rise, Navarro dismissed the idea and said he did not think the effect on prices would be substantial. Then, when a CNBC anchor presented a Citigroup study that suggested the tax would cause significant damage to earnings at some retailers, Navarro blasted the criticism as “a false narrative and a fake study.”
“You’ve got Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, all of these, the Peterson Institute – I went through three months of this on the campaign trail and all they did was try to bury us with all these garbage studies about the roof caving in and the world falling apart,” Navarro said. “Those tactics are just scare tactics. … We’re not backing off.”
