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In an address from the Oval Office, the president continued his assertion that other countries have been unfair to the United States in areas such as farming and said the U.S. would be reciprocating with tariffs.
“Canada has been ripping us off for years on tariffs for lumber and for dairy products,” he said.
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“That’s what reciprocal means. And we may do it as early as today. Or we’ll wait till Monday or Tuesday, but that’s what we’re going to do.”
Asked by a reporter whether he would stop making sudden shifts in trade and tariff policies, which is spooking the markets, Trump said he would not.
“There’ll always be changes and adjustments,” he said, adding that if he committed to no changes he would not have been able to give automakers a month’s reprieve on tariffs on Wednesday.
Trump sparked a trade war Tuesday by slapping 25 per cent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada only to delay them two days later until April 2.
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The president said Friday it’s “going to cost a lot of money” to have the tariffs kick in on the second of the month rather than the first.
“I wanted to be the first so badly, it just didn’t work to be on April Fool’s Day,” he said.
More to come …
• Email: bshecter@postmedia.com
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