President Donald Trump insisted he didn’t back off an April 2 date to establish sweeping world taxes after a series of difficulties and exclusions for Canada and Mexico.
” We’ve been ripped off for ages, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore”, Trump told reporters in the White House‘s Oval Office on Thursday. ” No, I’m not going to bend at all]on ] aluminum, or steel, or cars. We’re not going to flex”.
” We don’t want their vehicles. We don’t want their strength. We don’t want their hardwood. We don’t need anything that they, that they give”, he said. ” We do it because we want to be useful, but it comes a stage when you just can’t do that. You have to manage your own land”.
Instead, Trump indicated Canada, a NATO part, “only works as a state” of the U. S., though he would allow it to retain its national anthem.
” It would be one of the great state”, he said. ” If you look at a diagram, they drew an arbitrary line right through it, between Canada and the U. S., just a flat artificial line, somebody did a long time ago, some, several decades ago, and it makes no sense. … There’ll be a little disturbance, but it won’t be quite huge. But they need us. We really don’t need them. And we have to do this. I’m sad”.
Trump’s feedback came as American officials, including Ontario Premier Doug Ford, are in Washington on Thursday after Trump’s 25 % across-the-board tariffs against Canada went into effect this year. More 25 % duties on steel and aluminum are also being imposed. In response, Canada announced last week that it was putting 25 % tariffs on$ 30 billion worth of U. S. goods, with 25 % levies placed on another$ 20 billion worth of U. S. goods overnight.
Ford’s danger to fight with a 25 % tax on energy imported into Michigan, Minnesota, and New York was met with Trump’s own hostile steps: increasing the across-the-board taxes to 50 %.
Trump also used the casual press conference to talk about the European Union‘s taxes against the U. S.
On Thursday morning, Trump declared he was introducing 200 % tariffs on alcohol from the EU after the European bloc said there would be a 50 % duty on U. S. whiskey as part of a package of levies on$ 26 billion euros worth of U. S. goods, or about$ 28 billion — approximately the same amount of EU goods affected by the U. S.’s actions.
TRUMP THREATENS 200 % ALCOHOL TARIFFS ON EU States
” Take a look at the Union, we’re never allowed to sell cars it”, Trump said. ” It’s prohibited because of their policies and even their non-monetary taxes. That’s, they put obstacles in your approach that you can do nothing about”.
The leader added,” They don’t get our crops. We take their crops. It’s like a one-way city with them. The European Union is pretty, pretty nasty”.
