When US President Donald Trump said yesterday that he had second thoughts about escalating the trade war with China, he meant that he wished he had raised tariffs on Beijing even higher, the White House said.
Trump, who announced higher tariffs on Chinese goods last week, raised eyebrows during a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the G7 summit when he responded in the affirmative to questions from reporters on whether he had any second thoughts about the tariff move.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham sought to explain the remark.
Photo: AP
“His answer has been greatly misinterpreted. President Trump responded in the affirmative — because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher,” she said in a statement.
During his meeting with Johnson, Trump was asked if he had second thoughts about his latest escalation.
“Yeah, sure. Why not?” he said.
Photo: AP
The reporter repeated the question and Trump replied: “Might as well. Might as well.”
A second reporter followed up again, asking if he had second thoughts about escalating the trade war with China.
“I have second thoughts about everything,” Trump said.
Asked if he would declare a national emergency over the issue, Trump said he had the right to do so, but had no plans in the works.
“I could declare a national emergency. I think when they steal and take out, and — intellectual property theft, anywhere from US$300 billion to US$500 billion a year, and where we have a total loss of almost a trillion dollars a year ... in many ways, that’s an emergency,” he said. “I have no plan right now. Actually, we’re getting along very well with China right now. We’re talking. I think they want to make a deal much more than I do.”
Meanwhile, sitting opposite Trump yesterday, Johnson praised the performance of the US economy before adding: “But just to register a faint, sheep-like note of our view on the trade war — we are in favor of trade peace on the whole.”
Johnson said he and Trump were “gung-ho” about a post-Brexit trade deal, but cautioned the US would be tough negotiators and that he would not rush talks.
Moreover, Washington would have to relax some “protectionist” policies, he said.
“They want to do it within a year, I’d love to do it within a year, but that’s a very fast timetable,” Johnson told Sky News.
He told European Council President Donald Tusk that Britain would be leaving the EU on Oct. 31 whatever the circumstances, a British official said after the two men met at the summit.
Johnson told Tusk that his preference remained to seek a deal with the EU, and repeated that he would be willing to sit down and talk with EU leaders, the official said.
In other developments, G7 leaders have agreed to help the countries affected by the huge wildfires ravaging the Amazon rainforest as soon as possible, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
“We are all agreed on helping those countries which have been hit by the fires as fast as possible,” he told journalists at the summit.
“Our teams are making contact with all the Amazon countries so we can finalize some very concrete commitments involving technical resources and funding,” he said.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
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