President Donald Trump defended what he called ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on U.S. allies and said he might favor scrapping NAFTA and replacing it with separate deals with Canada and Mexico.
‘NAFTA look it’s been a terrible deal for the United States. People are starting to see it,’ Trump said, asked about the trade war after his administration announced it was slapping steal and aluminum tariffs on allies Canada and Mexico as well as the European Union.
Those nations, in turn, announced they were hitting the U.S. with taxes on products ranging from steel to peanut butter.
‘And I believe in the word reciprocal. You’re gonna charge five times, we’re gonna charge five times. That hasn’t been done. No other president ever brought it up. and it’s gonna be done now,’ Trump said.
‘NAFTA look it’s been a terrible deal for the United States,’ said Trump, as the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the EU traded shots in a trade war
His saber rattling came after his chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow said it was a ‘trade discussion’ and ‘not a trade war.
Trump went back to fuming over the U.S. trade deficits with other nations.
‘We lose over $100 billion a year with Mexico,’ he said. ‘All of these countries including the European Union, they charge five times the tariff… they charge five times what we charge for tariffs,’ he said.
Then he moved to the idea of slicing up NAFTA, a trade treaty that has been the subject of talks with Canada and Mexico since the start of his administration.
Trump, seen here with the media as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looks on, trashed NAFTA and defended ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
‘We’re talking about NAFTA. To be honest with you … I wouldn’t mind seeing NAFTA where you go by a different name. Where you make a separate deal with Canada and a separate deal with Mexico,’ Trump said.
‘Because you’re talking about a very different two countries. But I wouldn’t mind seeing a separate deal with Canada where you have one type of product so to speak and a separate deal with Mexico,’ he continued.
‘These are two very different countries. It’s been a lousy deal for the United States from Day One,’ Trump said.