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Investing.com -- U.S. President Donald Trump continues to press forward with his tariff policy despite widespread carnage in the market. In a news conference Monday afternoon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump indicated that the reciprocal tariffs could be permanent, but he is also open to negotiations.
When asked about mixed messages from his administration—some suggesting negotiations, others calling the tariffs permanent—Trump responded: “Both can be true. Tariffs can be permanent, and we can still negotiate, because we need more than just tariffs.”
Last Wednesday, Trump announced a 10% base tariff for imports to the U.S. and varying reciprocal tariffs on over 180 countries, which take effect on April 9th. The S&P 500 has sold off over 10% since the announcement.
A big sticking point for Trump appears to be the non-monetary tariffs from trading partners, including limiting access for U.S. companies.
Trump described how the EU prevents the sale of U.S. cars with a so-called bowling-ball test. If testers in the EU drop a bowling ball on the roof of a vehicle and it dents, then the car is rejected, Trump claimed. However, he said the same standards are not applied to cars built in the EU.
“The European Union’s been very bad to us,” Trump said. “They don’t take our cars, like Japan in that sense. They don’t take our agricultural product. They don’t take anything, practically. And yet they send millions of cars in a year, Mercedes-Benz (OTC:MBGAF), Volkswagen (ETR:VOWG_p), BMWs.”
Trump added that many countries have been clamoring for a deal since he announced the tariffs.
“Virtually every country wants to negotiate,” Trump said. “If I didn't do what I did over the last couple of weeks, you wouldn't have anybody wanting to negotiate. We would have gone to these countries who want to talk and they were, well, we don't want to talk. Now they're coming to us.”
The president also reiterated his threat to raise tariffs on China by another 50% if the country does not remove their 34% retaliatory tariff on the U.S. If the new additional tariff goes into effect, that could raise the U.S. tariff on China to 104%.
Trump again stated his belief that tariffs would make the U.S. wealthy.
“Tariffs will make this country very rich,” Trump said. “We're rich anyway, but we're rich in a certain way. We have $36 trillion in debt. I want to get rid of it. And we can do it quickly with proper deals. So when countries don't allow us to sell our product, but we allow them to sell their product, and they charge us massive amounts of money for the privilege of going into their country, those days are over.”