were and say why not. i think it's up to all of us, each and every day to dream of the things that have never been here in ameut cri bld be a greater, more beautiful, stronger, more prosperous, more hoful americand sayhy not.

hi house economic council director larry kudlow talked to reporters about president trump's agenda at the g- summit in canada. lsre questions about the ongoing tradeh ello everybi'm larry kudlow. soe brief stuff on the g-7 meeting. basically the key points, number one, economic growth. stest-growin the now has the world according to the oecd or

at least the fastest-growing economy among the industrialized nations. second, there will be trade discussions, as you might imagine. third, there will be some important bilateral meetings ump will be meeting with prime minister trudeau president ma,mportant bilaterals. and finally i think one of the key points of course on the eve of the north korean summit in singapore, one of the key points will be shared security issues among the allies. and if i may, just perhaps because it's my foritebj t, the united states economy is growg. we're pushing through 3%. some s it couldn't bgdone, and . and i think preside trump's policies of lower taxes and

major regulatory rollback are a key partf this issue. and i also think his role as a -- probably the strongest trade reformer o the past 20 years not only protect american interests but to open up avenues of growth for our business and or workers and frankly to help open up world growth, the world trading system is a mess, it is broken down. and so far as fairnessnd reciprocity and ultimately free trade. i think this is contributing to our economic growth and our confidence. the key point here on the economy is small business confidence record high or nearly so, consumer sentiment, i guess that's in 15 or 20 years -- 20 years at least, and of course the jobs numbers have been

superb. sgested nothing better could be written about the job performance. i loved reading that. and unemployment rates are down across the board. we haven't seen such low unemployment in many many decades for all categories, i might add. so i think the policies are working. and my great hope is that our friends at the g-7 will take notice of these policies and work with us to extend and expand them so we can have a prosperous u.s. and world economy. so these will all come up. yes, ma'am? tnkyor. t.apec trade with china, if i may? first, have you reached a deal to lift the ban -- [inaudible] -- and if so, what can you tell us about it? >> no decision has been reached

by both sides. secre commerce.er you toilbur as of this moment, no decision has been reached by both sides. >> secondly, in terms of your focus on china and tar oniffs china, there seems to be a dual focus of this administration on lowering the trade deficit with china but also on structural reform. how do you see the more important of thosels a wh are you doing to try to hieve the structural reform in particular? >> you know, they are absolutely related. in other words, the negotiations between the u.s. and china, regarding trade will lower the trade deficit, if it works out. there are no deals at the moment. but the way you do that, this is an important point, i'm not sure folks have sort of picked up on this, and i appreciate your

question on this. this is a not a government to government. this is not the chinese government buying a bunch of natural gas and soybeans from america. this is about reducing tariff rates and nontariff barriers that will pt the increase in u.s. export sales to china. that's theual chism. and i don't think that's been a clear point. it's an economic point. that's how you do it. that represents structural change, important structural change. now, as you know, there are other issues here regarding technology transfers and so forth, but in terms of -- and if you do that, if you lower the tariff rates and if you lower the nontariff barriers, and you permit increased u.s. export sales, we are the most competitive economy in the world, so we will get that job done, then the trade gap will probab atow that will work.

>> the finance minister's in or teekend -- [inaudible] -- contentious discussions -- [inaudible] -- how does the u.s. plan to respond to criticisms? >> look, we are talking everything through. there may b disagreements. i regard this as much like a family quarrel. i'm always the optimist. i believe it can be worked out. but, you know, i'm always hopeful on that point. this is a g-7 meeting. state will get together.ds of let me add one thought to that, though. the president -- president trump is very clear with respect to

his trade reform efforts that we will do what is necessary to protect the united states, its businesses and its workforce so that we may have disagreements. we may have tactical disagreements, but he has always said, and i agree, tariffs are a tool in that effort. and people should recognize how serious he is in that respect. >> -- [inaudible] there's some reports that secretary mnuchin pushes for some changes with canada? >> i'm going to leave that t the meeting. >> you mentioned the president will be having a bilateral during the g-7 with canadian prime minister trudeau. how would youribeel t now between the u.s. and canada?

are they better than have existed in prior administ a wors tave eed prior i d want to make comparisons with prior administrations. >> [inaudible]. >> jt between us. i get it. i appreciate it. look, president trump talks to prime minister trudeau a lot and inues to do so. i think the bilateral meeting that's scheduled between the two is a really good thing, and i think they will walk through a lot of these issues. states andan will remain firm friends and allies, whatever short-term disagreements may occur. so i would say relations are very good, yes. >> what are the prospects for nafta being renegotiated this we're still talking. communication lines are open. i don't want to make a prediction everyone is still talking. yes? >> yes, sir. could you talk a little bit

about>> sorry -- please, feel f. >> it's all good. >> go ead, work it out. >> all right. thank you. regarding trade deficits tre deficits as if they are their own problem and other countries aren't buying our goods, and i know that you're saying that the issue is tariffs and lowering trade barriers will reduce trade deficits. what happens when the tariffs come down, the barriers come down, and the tradeeficit doesn't go down? what happe en, sir? >> well, look, you know, supply and demand in global markets subject to macro economic factors, that stuff is pretty hard to predict, but think it is reasonable to assume that if our neighbors and a whoever lower their trade barriers, we will export

gnictly more frankly across the board, and if i could expand on that thought, the economy isoing through very positive transformation right now, as i said earlier, lower tax rates, rollback of regulations, the w business is over. the war againstcess is over. the war against energy is over. we have now freed up the ce indexes.u canhenfid we are rolling. the u.s. economy is rolling. so if you give us a chance, foreign countries, we will fill at bill. we will increase export sales in a significant way. now ian't promise nor would i predict future tradeut i'maying it is bound t have a positive impact. >> when the president talks about, for instan, mobiles, he complains that, for instance, germans don't buy amancamany h a luxury car industry that's world

renowned, why would they buy our own cars? it sounds often like the president's problem is other countries aren't buying our goods. not that we're not able to sell them to other countries. >> by in large, i don't a wiat but let me just bup. here's the president's key thought on this, reciprocity. and one of the problems -- one of the reasons for the breakdown of the trading system, the world trading system ai described, which the president is trying to fix. in the last 20 some years,we'v , tariff, nontariff be gone up. there's been a lot of otectionism. the united states by the way we have the lowest average tariff in the world. if you go down a laundry list of industries, you will see our rates are much lower than our competitors. so his point is we should all have a level playing field.

he calls it reciprocity. i think it is a very apt description. thathe proble bring down the bar and you equalize the -- level the pying field, then we will let nature take its course. we will let markets take their course, and we will see. but i think the products we make here have improve enormously and will continue to improve enormously andt'seally the message of this economic recovery. so we'll wait and see on that, but that's the mechanism as i said to the other question, you know, the way you lower your trade gap, the way you increase your exports is lower the barriers, and again, i want to say, other presidents in both parties have paid lip service to this issue of the lack of reciprocity and china's particularly bad behavior. but nothing ever comes of it. this president has the backbone to take the fight, and he will ueo make the fight because he believes it is in the best interest of the united states and also the rest of the

world. yes? >> is the united states committed to a framework that's set up -- [inaudible]. the president trump backing away from -- [inaudible]. >> no, let me be very clear. important question. don't blame trump. blame the nations that have broken away from those conditions. very important point. all right? i'm not here at the podium to call out countries and individual names and so forth, but you know from own trp' to fix this broken system. it was a good system. i agree with you. and it lasted for a bunch of decades. but that system has been broken in the last 20 years plus. the world trade organization, for example, has become

completely ineffectual and even p in the rare moments when it makesonor countries don't even abide by them. ou're right about that framework, from the mid 1940s on, i think it worked beautifully. i think the free world trade is a very good thing indeed, but it is broken. and president trump is trying to fix it, and that's the key point. i have said before, i think he's the strst trade reformer in many decades. >> -- [inaudible] it is possible if these frameworks break down, it couea that. >> well, i won't comment on what the president said. i will only say this, each country has a responsibility to reengage the world trading system. all right? we are making requests. i'd like -- the president would like other countries to deal with our requests. so far they have not in any satisfactory way. that would helpolve the

problem and hopefully this g-7 me which w takeprade in some considerable form will move thisalong. >> in 02 we went through the same thing with the steel tariffs and that was a disaster; gh we ended up getting fined by the wto and we had to pull back those tariffs which was 30%, not the 25%, two years earlier than they were supposed to expire. how is this different than that? because reaction from the world was the same, eu, t partners, same reaction, and there was a trade war, there was a trade war. >> i don't think there was a ad may. i think what we're engaged with here is trade disputes that need to be solved. i will come back to my point. no administration in either party has made this case in a comprehensive way as president trump is now doing. i think that's the difference. yes?

>> thank you. since a lot of countries now are coming up with retaliatory tariffs and taking their cases to the wto, will this administration respect the decisions that come out of the wto? >> you know, the united states, the president saidhiy times, you kn w bou by the national interests here more than anything else. e always interested in the world trade orzaon there have been complaint o with respect to chinese practices and the practices of other nations so we're working through the wto. but international multilatally organizations are not going to determine american policy. i think the president has made that very clear. >> can you describe -- you talked about the summit -- that there's going to be a lot of conversations, bilateral and otherwise at the summit, is there some expectation within the administration of an actual

outcome? is there some -- d you expect some kind of decision either son only of these tariff -- either on some of these tariff issues, some kind o communique that wouldhherde or on iran or any other issues? >> we will see what comes of it. sions.l see.we're going tha the it is early right now. >> it early. we're a couple of days from the summit. >> these kinds ofdecisions, let them meet first. let them meet. let them discuss and then we will see what happens. >> -- [inaudible] -- recommended to the president this week that the president extend the exemption on steel and aluminium tariffs to the ka -- canadians, there was a report on that? >> the reportas inco >> he did not recommend an exemption to them? >> he did not. i was in that meeting.

i talked to treasury secretary earlier today. neither of us said a word in that meeting. so that story is patently false. okay? >> follow-up? it's one thing to talk about increased tariffs with mexico or canada, the economies are much a nefarious actor .s. trade like china, how is it in china's interest to have a meeting of the minds or even come to some sort of an agreement to level the playing field considering the massive amount of trade that happens between our two countries? >> meaning the u.s. and china? >> yes. >> look, of course it is in their interests. i mean they do a lot of business here. >> why would they want toha ithe way they have been handling things already? >> i don't know. from the u.s. standpoint it's a very unbalanced picture and the

president would like to remedy that. that's a key point. secondly, as we have said on a number of occasions, china has enged in unfa frequently wto illegal trading practices. what's more, regarding ip theft, forced technology transfers and other matters, china has not behaved well. now, this could be remedied if the two countries can reach agreements in certain areas. thus far we have not. but china sells a lot of goods here. don't forget that. that's of course the source of trade deficit. and president trump would like to balance that out and bring down barriers and make new arrangements and see if china will play by the rules. that's an important point. >> youalked abo china' bad beha a hav acknowledged the tension between the other countries at the g-7. are you concerned that that tension is going to affect your own negotiations with china

because, you know, it seemsike you could really use the allies right now and the u.s. is pretty isolated. we heard a lot from president trump about his summit with kim jong-un and he's spoken very little about the is he going to be too distracted by -- >> no. >> to my colleague's point, what are his main goals? does he have a prctive agenda for the g-7? >> we are in the process of briefings and discussions he. as i said at the top, the outline here is easy, owth, trade, important bilateral talks and important shared security talks. let me go to the first pt of your question. the whole world agrees with us regarding china's trade practices. the whole world. and in fact, many parts of that

world have filed their own complaints on exactly the same grounds. eitherith t government of with the world trade organization. make no mistake about that. our president has taken action, strong decisive action, as i said, i continue to refer to him as a trade reformer, and by the way, i will elaborate once more. he regards himself as a free trader. but until we can deal with these unfair practices and soforth, we will not have fair trade. until we can have reciprocal relationships, we will not have free trade or fair trade. i think the cause the just. i think the rest of the world of the agrees with him. -- i think his cause is just. i think the rest of the world agrees with him. >> does he want to go on this trip? >> the president is at ease with alhe issues. he's proven himself to be a leader on the world stage and

he's achieved great successes i might add in foreign policy. so i't thi there's any issue there at all. >> to your point on the mindset, british prime minister may -- [inaudible] -- what does the president think of the remarks? >> there are disagreements. 'sticking to guns and he's going to talk to them, communication, the lines are open. the negotiations are ongoing. not at the presidential level but at the trade level again with the ambassador and the commerce secretary wilbur ross and treasury secretary steve mnuchin. talk is the best remedy here. we have different points of view there aretical questions. my view, we can get through this. we have in the past.

>> tension with stalwart allies not give him -- [inaudible]? >> there's always tension about something. there's always tension about something. last one? >> help us understand how to read the president's rds. he tweeted this week best economy in jobs ever but unemployment as you know t there's a good story to unemoyment a all time low, gdp growth is not all-time high, while the economy is doing well, how should we read the president's words? sh it hyperbole? should we not take him literally? >> it is factual. 3.8% unemployment is among the lowest on record. >> among. it is not the best ever. so it is hyperbole, would you agree? >> he's stating facts. the facts stand on their own. i'm not going to quibble with you on such things. regarding 3% growth, virtually every economist on the other side of the aisle and they are friends of mine, many of them

are good friends of mine said 3% growth couldn't be achieved. we couldn't do better than 1 to 2. you heard it. i heard it. we have argued it and debated it. okay? we are now moving into 3% zone. that's a huge achievement. the president's policies again pro-growth policies, lower taxes, lower regulations, taking the handcuffs off business, telling people to be as entrepreneurial risk taking as they properly can. providing confidence. these things have added up to a tremendous transformation of th only just beginning. so to me, it's a factual statement. let me just say thank you to all of you. we appreciate it. >> will he sign a joint communique? >> what about the national security implications for the tariffn canada? can y eha sir?

>> former senator robert kennedy was shot and killed 50 years ago at the ambassador hotel in los angeles. after winning the california democratic presidential primary. here's a headline from the washington post: how bobby kennedy's assassination still shapes politics. and from the las vegas review journal, a picture of congressman joe kennedy, grandsonf robennedy a memorial l cemetery today. we will bring you that k ceremony next on c-span 2.

>> a service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assaat