President Donald Trump stated, on Monday, to reporters that he “is not considering” implementing a pause in the enforcement of tariffs that he announced last week. He asserted that “permanent tariffs can exist and negotiations can also take place,” as reported by CNN.”Well, we’re not thinking about that. We have many, many countries coming to negotiate deals with us. And these will be fair deals. In certain cases, they will pay substantial tariffs. They will be fair deals. As you know, I spoke this morning with the Prime Minister of Japan and we had a very good conversation,” said the president.When asked about the contradictory messages from his administration regarding tariff negotiations, the president argued that “both can be true.””They could both be true. There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations, because there are things we need beyond tariffs,” the Republican maintained.Trump claimed that the European Union is taking advantage of the United States. Continuing to answer questions in the Oval Office, Donald Trump returned to the European Union, repeating the criticisms we have heard many times in recent weeks, as reported by Sky News.”The bloc was formed to harm the US. Countries joined together to create a monopoly situation – a unified force against the US for trade. They have NATO and have taken advantage of us in terms of the dollar and military,” said the Republican president, Donald Trump.He says that the EU – which he imposed tariffs of 20% on last week – is “robbing us in trade” and that “it has been bad for the US.””They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our agricultural products and yet they send millions of cars to the US. It’s not going to be like that. It’s not fair,” added the Republican.He adds that trade with the EU must be “fair and reciprocal.”The president’s remarks were made while he was sitting alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office. US stocks have been extremely volatile today with traders looking for any sign that Trump’s tariffs could be negotiated or stopped. US stocks fell on Monday for the third consecutive day and the S&P 500 entered negative market territory.Trump stated that the European Union offer, slammed by Ursula von Der Leyen to have ‘zero-for-zero’ tariffs is not being taken into account.The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated on Monday that the European Union is ready to negotiate with the United States to reach an agreement on tariffs, while also preparing measures to defend its interests, reported the EFE agency, cited by Agerpres.”We offered ‘zero-for-zero’ tariffs for industrial goods, as we successfully did with many other trading partners, because Europe is always ready for a good deal, so we keep it on the table. But we are also ready to respond with countermeasures and defend our interests,” Von der Leyen said.Community sources stated that the offer to apply zero tariffs reciprocally for industrial goods was part of the negotiations that the European Commissioner for Trade, Maros Sefcovic, had with US authorities, with the latest discussions taking place last week.
