“Trade wars are good, and easy to win.”
He vows harsher policies in the face of global uproar
DONALD TRUMP, US president
UNITED States President Donald Trump welcomed the prospect of a trade war on Friday, remaining defiant in the face of the global uproar sparked by his sudden announcement of steel and aluminium tariffs.
With global stock markets tumbling and allies riled, the president greeted the negative reaction by raising the stakes and vowing even harsher trade policies.
In blistering morning tweets, he said he would seek to impose “reciprocal taxes” on all imports from trading partners that charged duties on US exports.
The wide-ranging actions, if imposed, would eviscerate the rules-based global trading system the US helped to build, and drastically raise the chances of a trade war.
In the early morning tweet, Trump said: “Trade wars are good, and easy to win”.
Allowing imports into the US market duty-free when similar exports face tariffs is “not fair or smart”, Trump said on Twitter.
“We will soon be starting RECIPROCAL TAXES so that we will charge the same thing as they charge us. US$800 Billion Trade Deficit — have no choice!”
He also defended his decision on Thursday to impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminium.
“IF YOU DON’T HAVE STEEL, YOU DON’T HAVE A COUNTRY!” Trump said in another tweet on Friday.
And while allies like Canada, had hoped to be spared the tariffs, a senior administration official said Trump had ruled out allowing countries to be exempted.
Amid a global stocks sell-off and irate reactions from trading partners and US industry groups, administration officials had moved to defend the policy, arguing that the tariffs would result in negligible price increases for durable goods and consumer items.
A White House official said the proposed 10 per cent tariff on aluminium imports would result in a mere US$25,000 (RM97,500) increase in the price of a US$330 million Boeing 777.
“There would be no unemployment as a result from this because we’re in a tight labour market,” the official said.
But, economists cite the steel tariffs imposed in 2002 by then president George W. Bush, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of job losses and billions in lost wages, before being rescinded after less than two years.
“When you have the president of the US going on the record and saying trade wars are good and they’re easy to win, I shudder to think what that even means,” said Rufus Yerxa, president of the National Foreign Trade Council.
Yerxa said the national security basis for the tariffs had never been applied to allies.
“This is a hostile act to all of them. This is saying you are a threat to our national security and that is about as outrageous as you can get.”