Daijiworld Media Network – Washington

Washington, Aug 4: US President Donald Trump on Monday defended his sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, declaring them long overdue and vowing to use the revenue to reduce the national debt. “We’re going to pay down debt. We have a lot of money coming in — more than the country’s ever seen,” he told reporters.

Trump said the policy of imposing reciprocal tariffs should have been implemented “many years ago,” claiming that the influx of money would be used to bolster the US economy and bring fairness to global trade. “I'm not looking for leverage, I'm looking for fairness,” he said.

The controversial move comes months after Trump returned to the White House. In April, he invoked a 1977 law to declare America’s trade deficit a national emergency and announced “reciprocal” taxes of up to 50 per cent on nations with which the US runs trade deficits, along with a 10 per cent baseline tariff on most others. Although initially suspended for 90 days to allow countries to negotiate, the higher tariffs were eventually enforced on those that did not comply.

In a fresh executive order signed just hours before the August 1 trade deadline, Trump imposed higher tariffs on 69 countries, including 50 per cent on Brazil, 35 per cent on Canada, 25 per cent on India, 41 per cent on Syria, 39 per cent on Switzerland, and 20 per cent on Taiwan. In contrast, tariffs on Pakistan were reduced from 29 to 19 per cent.

Trump insisted the moves are aimed at reshaping global trade in favour of American businesses and workers.