Washington: United States President Donald Trump remained adamant Monday on his policy to impose a hefty import duty on Chinese products, which has resulted in a quick retaliation from China and a massive downslide in the American stock market fearing a US-China trade war.
“There can be some retaliation, but it can’t be very, very substantial, by comparison,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office of the White House, which was soon after China announced retaliatory tariffs on import of American products.
Last Friday, Trump increased the import duty on Chinese products worth USD 200 billion from 10 per cent to 25 per cent. He has also started the process of a similar increase on the remaining Chinese imports of over USD 300 billion.
“Out of the billions of dollars that we’re taking in, a small portion of that will be going to our farmers because China will be retaliating, probably, to a certain extent, against our farmers,” Trump informed. He indicated that he was not going back unless China agreed to the negotiated trade agreement between them.
Later, at a White House Iftaar dinner, Trump hinted that things could be clear in four weeks time. “We will let you know in about three or four weeks whether or not it was successful…. But I have a feeling it is going to be very successful,” he told a gathering of eminent Muslims and diplomats from the Islamic world.
Trump told reporters that as a result of his policies, farmers and manufacturers would be very happy. “And our government is very happy because we are taking in tens of billions of dollars. I think it is working out very well,” he asserted.
“We’re taking in, right now, hundreds of billions of dollars. We’re taking in billions of dollars of tariffs. And those tariffs are going to be tremendously – if you look at what we’ve done thus far with China, we’ve never taken in 10 cents until I got elected. Now we’re taking in billions and billions of dollars,” Trump added.
But there was a panic reaction by the market as a result of the US-China trade tension. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 617.38 points, and the S&P 500 dropped 69.53 points. These are the biggest one-day losses since January 3. Similarly, the Nasdaq Composite declined 269.92 points, which is its worst showing since December.
AFP