Washington DC: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a news conference on reciprocal tariffs will be made later today.
In a post on Truth Social today, US President Trump wrote, "THREE GREAT WEEKS, PERHAPS THE BEST EVER, BUT TODAY IS THE BIG ONE: RECIPROCAL TARIFFS!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!" In a follow-up post he added, "NEWS CONFERENCE ON RECIPROCAL TARIFFS TODAY, 1:00 P.M., THE OVAL OFFICE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!" Trump's announcement comes ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who reached the United States today on an official visit. The two leaders are set to meet in the White House tonight.
As per CNN, reciprocal tariffs were one of Trump's core campaign pledges to solve what he has said are unfair trade practices.
"Very simply, it's if they charge us, we charge them," Trump said Sunday, explaining why he intends to enact reciprocal tariffs, CNN reported.
Speaking about reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "This is something he believes strongly in, and it's very simple logic as to why the president wants to impose reciprocal tariffs." Other nations have been "ripping off" the US, she said, "and that's why the president believes this will be a great policy that will benefit American workers and improve our national security", CNN reported.
Earlier, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the NFL Super Bowl on Sunday, Trump said that the tarrifs from Monday will impose a 25 per cent charge on all steel imports entering the United States, as well as a 25 per cent tariff on aluminium imports.
In many cases, the US has lower tariffs than other nations for the same product, although Trump did not mention whether there would be exclusions to the new round of tariffs.
The US President often speaks about high tariffs imposed by foreign governments on cars, where the US duty is only 2.5 per cent.
During his presidential campaign, Trump had announced he would work with Congress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Act that would give him the authority to increase the tariff on a particular foreign good to the level imposed by that nation.
In a campaign video, he said, "Under the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act, other countries will have two choices -- they'll get rid of their tariffs on us, or they will pay us hundreds of billions of dollars, and the United States will make an absolute FORTUNE."
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