Trump Says Tariff Policy Will Not Change: Some 3,000 Foreign-Built Factories Under Way in the U.S. Would Halt if Tariffs Were Removed
Washington — President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on November 5 that he will not change his tariff policy, his first extended response to questions about his trade agenda two days after the Republican Party's defeat in the midterm elections.
Trump said foreign companies are building approximately 3,000 factories and production facilities in the United States to avoid high tariffs, and claimed that 99 percent of the projects were prompted by fears of tariffs as high as 250 percent. He warned that foreign companies that do not build factories in the U.S. could face tariffs of 50, 100, 150, 250 and up to 300 percent.
He repeatedly emphasized that if the tariffs were eliminated, construction of these facilities would cease immediately, leaving projects unfinished. Once factories are built and operational, he argued, companies no longer need to pay tariffs; scrapping the tariffs, by contrast, would force Americans to rely again on imports from China, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.
Democrats retook both chambers of Congress in the midterms, with voter frustration over inflation and the cost of living widely seen as a leading cause of the Republican defeat. Trump's remarks signal little willingness to reconsider the tariff-centred manufacturing policy at the core of his economic programme.
(Source: White House)
Source: White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：特朗普在白宫（白宫官方照片，资料图）。公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: President Trump at the White House (official White House photo, file photo). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
