'Hang tough, it won't be easy': Trump defiant on tariffs
WASHINGTON
U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on April 5 on sweeping tariffs he unleashed on countries around the world, warning Americans of pain ahead, but promising historic investment and prosperity.
The comments came as Trump's widest-ranging trade measures took effect in a move that could trigger retaliation and escalating economic tensions, with the British and French leaders saying "nothing should be off the table" in response.
Trump, acknowledging global turbulence, urged Americans to be patient.
"We have been the dumb and helpless 'whipping post,' but not any longer. We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before," he wrote on Truth Social.
"This is an economic revolution, and we will win," the Republican president added. "Hang tough, it won't be easy, but the end result will be historic."
A 10 percent "baseline" tariff came into place on April 5, hitting most U.S. imports except goods from Mexico and Canada, as Trump invoked emergency economic powers.
The EU, Japan and China are among around 60 trading partners set to face even higher rates on April 9.
Trump's steep 34 percent tariff on Chinese goods, set to kick in this week, triggered Beijing's announcement of a 34 percent tariff on U.S. products from April 10.
"China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close," Trump said in his post. "They, and many other nations, have treated us unsustainably badly."
As other major trading partners eyed possible recession, the French and British leaders said "nothing should be off the table."
Wall Street went into free fall on April 4, following similar plunges in Asia and Europe as economists warn tariffs could dampen growth and fuel inflation.
Canada and Mexico are unaffected by the latest move as they already face separate duties of up to 25 percent on goods entering the United States outside a North America trade agreement.
While Trump's staggered deadlines allow space for countries to negotiate, "if they can't get a reprieve, they are likely to retaliate, as China already has," Oxford Economics warned.
EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the bloc, which faces a 20 percent tariff, will act in "a calm, carefully phased, unified way" and allow time for talks.
But he said it "won't stand idly by."
France and Germany have said the EU could respond by imposing a tax on U.S. technology companies.
Japan's prime minister called for a "calm-headed" approach after Trump unveiled 24 percent tariffs on Japanese-made goods.
Trump's 25 percent auto tariffs also took effect last week, and Jeep-owner Stellantis has paused production at some Canadian and Mexican plants.
Trump's new global levies mark "the most sweeping tariff hike since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the 1930 law best remembered for triggering a global trade war and deepening the Great Depression," said the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Oxford Economics estimates the action will push the average effective US tariff rate to 24 percent, "higher even than those seen in the 1930s."
