Monday after speaking the nation’s governors at the White House, President Donald Trump offered a preview of his upcoming address to Congress set for Tuesday night.
One of those topics included trade, which Trump said he would be pushing for fairness in trade, particularly if other countries levy a tax on U.S. exports.
“We’re also going to make taxes between countries much more fair,” he said. “We’re one of the only countries in the world that people can sell their product into us and have no tax, no nothing. And they get rich. And yet, if you want to do business with them, you’ll have taxes, I’ve seen as high as 100 percent. So, they sell into us — no problem. We sell into them because we don’t sell in because the taxes are so high that they don’t want us to sell into them. So, I know that’s always been a point of contention, but to me, it’s just fair. It’s just fair. It’s reciprocal. It’s fair.”
“And so we’re going to be doing a lot of work on that,” Trump continued. “And that’s becoming a very, very important factor, fairness. Because I believe in free trade. I want so much trade. You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, maybe he’s a total nationalist,’ which I am in a true sense. But I want trade. I want great trade between countries. But the word ‘free’ is very deceiving because it’s good for them, it’s not good for us. I want fair trade. And if we’re going to be taxed, they should be taxed at the same amount, the other countries.
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