Donald Trump said on Monday that he would not pause his tariff agenda, which had sent global markets into a tailspin, raised fears of a global recession, and prompted several countries to call for negotiations.
However, the US president indicated that he might be open to talks that align with his domestic economic agenda.
Trump’s statement came after the White House dismissed reports that the administration was considering a 90-day suspension of its reciprocal tariff plan for all target nations except China.
The report initially led financial markets to recover more than 3 per cent from a per cent loss on Monday, but they turned negative again following the administration’s clarification.
Tariffs ‘very important’
A 10 per cent tariff on imports from all countries is already in effect and targeted reciprocal tariffs are set to roll out starting Wednesday.
“We’re not looking at that,” Trump said during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who became the first foreign leader to visit the White House after the US president announced his ambitious tariffs.
The Republican said tariffs, which would generally remain, were a “very important” part of his economic agenda and signalled readiness to secure a “fair deal and good deals with every country.”
“There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations because there are things that we need beyond tariffs,” Trump added.
The US president sidestepped questions on whether it would be possible for countries to reduce their tariffs below the flat 10% baseline and said, “tariffs will make this country very rich.”
‘EU was formed to damage US’
Explaining his approach towards the European Union (EU), Trump said the bloc’s offer to bring tariffs on cars and industrial goods down to zero and reiterated his concern about the US’s bilateral trade deficit.
“The EU has been very tough over the years. It was, I always say it was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade. That’s the reason it was formed. They formed together to create a little bit of a monopoly situation to create a unified force against the United States for trade,” Trump said.
“We have a deficit with the European Union of $350 billion — it’s going to disappear fast,” Trump added.
(With Bloomberg inputs)
