The US president said he had spoken to leaders from Europe and Asia over the weekend who had hoped to convince him to lower the tariffs, which are due to come into effect this week.
International stock markets have fallen dramatically overnight amid fears of a global trade war following Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which he called « medicine ».
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index dived nearly 8%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell more than 6%, and South Korea’s Kospi lost 4.4%.
Meanwhile US stock market futures signalled further weaknesses, with the future for the S&P 500 losing 4.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 3.5%, while the future for the Nasdaq lost 5.3%.
Mr Trump warned foreign governments would have to pay « a lot of money » to lift his tariffs, which he described as « medicine ».
« I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something », he said on Air Force One.
The US president said he had spoken to leaders from Europe and Asia over the weekend who had hoped to convince him to lower the tariffs, which are due to come into effect this week.
