US President, Donald Trump on Sunday defended his sweeping tariffs on foreign imports, describing them as “medicine” for the American economy and insisting that foreign governments must pay “a lot of money” to ease the measures.
His remarks triggered renewed turmoil in financial markets, sending Asian stocks tumbling and US futures sharply lower as Monday trading began.
Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One after a weekend in Florida, Trump brushed off concerns about global market losses, saying, “I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
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He noted that several world leaders from Europe and Asia contacted him over the weekend, urging a rollback of the tariffs—some of which are set to reach 50% this week.
However, Trump was firm: “They are coming to the table. They want to talk, but there’s no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis.”
The escalating trade measures have already drawn retaliatory actions from China and raised fears of a full-blown global trade war. It remains unclear whether Trump’s strategy reflects a permanent shift in US trade policy or a short-term push for concessions.
(Reuters)
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