Trade disputes between China and the U.S. are one of the top agendas at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF). Politicians, business leaders and academics are all saying that the rift is sending ripples through the global economy. 

One of the major issues is the president of the United States' repeated accusation that China is stealing American manufacturing jobs. But Andrew Liveris, former CEO and chairman of Dow Chemical, holds a different view.

"What happened is that this new economy (China) was suddenly to evolve, and the consequence on things like the deficit between America and China that, we all know, for a long time was a symbolic relationship, because China owns a lot of American debt," Liveris explained. "What happened to America is, someone needs to be blamed for the loss of the American dream. That anger and fear have resulted in that we've got to change the paradigms that led us to this place. So China was blamed for those paradigms, quite unfairly."

Speaking of how to the trade disputes between the world's two largest economies can be resolved, Andrew Liveris dug deep. "The notion of trade maybe begins in China – the original barter trade. How humanity works together? Making rules by yelling at each other or by putting tariff together? That's not going to work. But I do think what is happening is a realization that we have to fix trade for this century. I'm an optimist. I do believe that pragmatism will prevail, and thoughtfulness,"  Liveris explained. 

Liveris was once the leader of Trump's manufacturing advisory council and he was deeply involved in some of the administration's tax and regulatory reform. He praised Trump's move to roll back some of the rules that came from the Obama administration that are considered unnecessary and hurt business competitiveness. “We came up with a lot of reforms that the president has put in place through executives order. And we finished them,” Liveris said.

But Liveris argued he is not one of those fevered Trump followers. "I'm a big fan of the policies that rebuild America's competitiveness. It is not just Trump's policies. America got an energy advantage, which really helped its factory base." 

"It is also a combination of many things, like, this president had never been in politics, so expect the unexpected should be the headline. Trump is just doing what his instinct tells him to do to make the country competitive again. I give huge kudos to him for that," Liveris said.