President Trump said there is no pause coming for tariffs set to take effect on Wednesday.
Rattled by the steep “reciprocal tariffs” Mr. Trump announced last week, Wall Street and stock markets around the world have suffered major selloffs.
“We’re not looking at that,” he said of a possible pause as he sat beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office. “We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us, and they’re going to be fair deals and in certain cases, they’re going to be paying substantial tariffs.”
Mr. Trump is using tariffs to rebalance trade relationships that have long disadvantaged the U.S.
“We’re going to have one shot at this,” he said. “And no other president is going to do what I’m doing.”
He called it “an honor” to do this.
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The president said he had a “very good conversation” with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and that he told him he has to “open up” the country because the U.S. sells no cars in Japan.
Mr. Trump also slammed China for threatening more retaliatory tariffs on the U.S.
“I have great respect for China but they can’t do this,” he said.
When asked about whether there are negotiations allowed for the tariffs or if they’re permanent, he said “They both can be true.”
“There are things that we need beyond tariffs,” he said. “We need open borders.”
