White House Explains How US Would Win Trade War With China
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump would be capable of winning a trade war against China if he leads negotiations, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said during a press briefing on Friday.
"The president feels like if he is in charge of those negotiations, absolutely, he's the best negotiator at the table," Sanders said when asked if Trump believes trade wars are easy to win.
There may be some fluctuation in the US stock market as a result of trade tariffs between China and the United States, but Beijing must change its unfair and illegal practices, Sanders said.
China is responsible for creating the trade dispute and Trump is trying to put pressure on the country to change its actions of unfair trade, Sanders said.
On Thursday, Trump instructed the US Trade Representative to consider imposing $100 billion of additional tariffs in light of China's "unfair" retaliation. The government of China this week announced its proposal to introduce 25-percent tariffs on more than 100 imports from the United States.
Earlier, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index on Friday closed down almost 600 points as fears of a global trade war intensified after Donald Trump announced his plans for the new tariffs.
At the end of the trading session on Friday, the Dow Jones benchmark, a 30-stock index used as an indicator of market performance, was down 572 points, a drop of 2.3 percent.
The NASDAQ index and the S&P 500 stock index each declined more than 2 percent.
The Dow marked dramatic swings this week with about 1,300 points separating its highest and lowest marks. On Monday, the Dow fell 758 points, but then recovered the losses before falling again on Friday.
Earlier in March, Trump signed an order to impose a 25-percent import tax on steel and 10-percent duties on aluminium. It was followed by a memorandum to impose $60 billion in extra tariffs on China over allegations of intellectual theft.
- Source : Sputnik
