US President, Donald Trump has warned he will impose tariffs on all goods coming into the US while also claiming that a significant fall in oil prices would “immediately” end the Russia-Ukraine war.
“If you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff,” he told business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland by video link.
These tariffs will come at “differing amounts” and would direct hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, to strengthen the US economy and pay down debt.
In his first major foreign policy speech since Monday’s inauguration, Trump also announced he would be asking Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil.
“If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately. Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue – you got to bring down the oil price,” he said.
Trump said he would be asking Saudi Arabia to increase a planned US investment package to $1 trillion from an initial $600 billion.
Since taking office, Trump has dismantled much of his predecessor Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, signing executive orders to scale up oil and gas exploration, clampdown on immigration and pardon most of those charged or convicted over the attacks on the US Capitol in 2021.
He has also pulled the US from the Paris Climate Accord, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the global deal on multinational tax, which could have significant implications for Ireland.
In his address to the Davos forum on Thursday, January 23, he launched another attack on the previous US administration, Trump said his government is acting with unprecedented speed to fix the “disasters” inherited from “a totally inept group of people”.
He claimed Biden’s “$8 trillion in wasteful deficit spending”, energy restrictions, regulations and hidden taxes had resulted in “the worst inflation crisis in modern history”.
The implications of a second Trump presidency for the global economy and for the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have dominated panel discussions at this year’s WEF.
