On The Money: Trump rules out total rollback of Chinese tariffs | Buttigieg unveils $1T child care, college, housing plan | Global billionaires’ wealth falls for first time since 2015

by Sylvan Lane - 11/08/19 3:54 PM ET

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THE BIG DEAL: Trump rules out total rollback of Chinese tariffs: President Trump on Friday opened the door to lifting some, but not all, of the tariffs he has imposed on Chinese goods in a preliminary trade deal with Beijing.

The president told reporters Friday that he “won’t do” a total repeal of tariffs on roughly $360 billion in Chinese goods, but did not rule out lifting some import taxes.

{mosads}”They’d like to have a rollback. I haven’t agreed to anything. China would like to get somewhat of a rollback. Not a complete rollback, because they know I won’t do it,” Trump said at the White House.

“China would like to make a deal much more than I would.”

Trump’s comments come after a week of confusion over how much leverage the White House would yield in a “Phase One” trade agreement with China. I explain what’s going on here.

What happened: Chinese officials said Thursday that both the U.S. and China would rollback tariffs in a preliminary agreement focused on tariff relief and agricultural trade.

“The leaders of the two sides have conducted a serious and constructive discussion on properly addressing the concerns of both sides and agreed to cancel the tariffs by stages in accordance with the development of the agreement,” said Gao Feng, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce.

The New York Times also reported Thursday that the White House had agreed to lift some tariffs as part of the Phase One agreement, citing a senior administration official.

But as Wall Street rallied on signs of progress toward a trade deal, the chief trade hawk on Trump’s fractious economic team insisted there was no agreement to lift tariffs.

“There is no agreement at this time to remove any of the existing tariffs as a condition of the phase one deal,” said White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said during an interview on “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”

LEADING THE DAY

Buttigieg unveils $1 trillion child care, college, housing plan: Top-tier Democratic presidential hopeful and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Friday unveiled an economic plan that includes more than $1 trillion in spending on affordable housing, education and child care.

The 2020 contender said he would invest $700 billion in education and child care, including making early learning and care from birth through age 5 free for low-income families and more affordable for all others. The Hill’s Rachel Frazin breaks the plan down here.

The highlights:

Buttigieg’s plan also includes spending $430 billion to give affordable housing to more than 7 million families, including the building or restoring 2 million units for low-income families.

Under the plan, families that make up to $100,000 won’t pay any public college tuition. It also calls for $50 billion in new investments in historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions.

Buttigieg would also expand Pell Grants to help low-income students graduate from college without student loan debt.

Buttigieg also proposes to help workers by expanding the earned income tax credit, which he said would increase incomes by an average of $1,000 annually, and by passing a $15 minimum wage.

Global billionaires’ wealth falls for first time since 2015: The global wealth of billionaires fell by about 4.3 percent in 2018, a new report has found, marking the first drop in three years.

The report, by Swiss bank USB and tax and consulting firm PwC, said that last year, the wealth of billionaires dropped by $388 billion, to about $8.5 trillion.

USB and PwC said that factors behind this included “a strong US dollar, trade friction, fears of lower economic growth, and financial market volatility.” The report found that the number of billionaires fell by 57, or 2.6 percent.

ON TAP NEXT WEEK

Tuesday:

The House Rules Committee holds a hearing on the Export Finance Agency Act of 2019, a bill to fund and reform the Export-Import Bank, 5 p.m.

Wednesday:

The House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on multilateral development institutions, 10 a.m.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before the Joint Economic Committee on the economic outlook, 11 a.m.

Thursday:

The Senate Small Business Committee holds a hearing on noncompete agreements, 10 a.m.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before the House Budget Committee on the economic outlook, 11 a.m.

The House Small Business Committee holds a hearing entitled “A Fair Playing Field? Investigating Big Tech’s Impact on Small Business,” 2 p.m.

NEXT WEEK’S NEWS, NOW

Lawmakers will grill Fed Chairman Jerome Powell twice next week in what will be his first public remarks since the central bank slashed rates for the third consecutive meeting last month. Both hearings are nominally focused on the economic outlook, but Powell is sure to get questions regarding monetary, fiscal, and regulatory policy.

The deadline to pass a government funding bill is less than two weeks away. With the House returning to Washington next week, this will be a crucial stretch to avoid a shutdown.

RECAP THE WEEK WITH ON THE MONEY

Monday: Dow hits record high | Optimism on trade deal lifts markets | Appeals court upholds NY prosecutors’ subpoena for Trump tax return

Tuesday: Lawmakers dismiss fears of another shutdown | Income for poorest Americans fell faster than thought | Net employment holds steady in September | Groups press Senate on retirement bill