U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told FOX Business’ Lou Dobbs that President Donald Trump’s decision to impose new tariffs on China will protect the nation’s intellectual properties and patents.

Continue Reading Below

“We will be granting at the U.S. Patent Office, part of Commerce, our 10 millionth patent sometime around the middle of this year. No country has ever had ten million patents, but they’re only good if you make people adhere to them,” he said.

The Trump administration signed off on the authorization to slap new tariffs worth $50 billion on Chinese goods Thursday, targeting 1,300 items.

"We have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on, which likewise [costs us] hundreds of billions of dollars, and that’s on a yearly basis," Trump said during a press conference, adding that the tariffs could end up being as high as $60 billion.

Ross said Trump is continuing to prove his critics wrong in the best interest of the U.S. after passing several items on the administration’s agenda.

“The same people who said that the new normal, which I call the new dismal, was that we can only grow at 1.5% and the president proved them wrong. And then said, ‘Well, you’ll never get a real tax bill through with big tax reductions,’ and the president proved them wrong. And now comes trade and my guess is the president will prove them wrong again,” he said.

Trump said American industries and workers have been taken advantage of for far too long.

“We are doing things for this country that should have been done for many, many years. We’ve had this abuse by many other countries and groups of countries that were put together in order to take advantage of the United States,” Trump said from the White House.

The commerce secretary said previous trade policies have allowed corporations to grow domestically and globally while leaving small businesses behind.

“For a big multinational company, whether they open a factory in Missouri or they open it in Wuhan, China, it’s really not much different,” Ross said. “But it leaves Mr. and Mrs. America behind and Mr. and Mrs. America is who the president is trying to defend.”

Trump defended American jobs and industries by getting tough on China, telling reporters that Asia’s largest economy has taken advantage of the United States.

“We are doing things for this country that should have been done for many, many years. We’ve had this abuse by many other countries and groups of countries that were put together in order to take advantage of the United States,” Trump said from the White House.