Trade Trump on tariff deal: countries "kiss my ass"
US President Donald Trump's tariff policy has almost the whole world in an uproar. Despite the initial negative consequences for the USA, he feels vindicated in his policy.
09.04.2025, 10:23
SDA
The world is dismayed, but US President Donald Trump is celebrating his tariff policy: at a Republican dinner in Washington on Tuesday evening (local time), Trump said that affected countries were calling desperately to negotiate the new tariffs.
"They're kissing my ass," the 78-year-old added, according to the video recording of his speech on the platform of US broadcaster C-Span. "They're dying to make a deal. They're saying, please, please, make a deal, I'll do anything for a deal, sir," Trump continued in front of members of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
He also expressed confidence that even China - which now has to pay tariffs of 104 percent on imports to the US - wanted a deal. "But they are proud people".
Tariffs now in force
The country-specific special tariffs announced by Trump are now in force. Since midnight US time (6.01 a.m. CEST), significantly higher tariffs have applied to numerous countries - especially those with which the US has a particularly high trade deficit according to government figures. For Switzerland, a rate of 31 percent applies to imports into the USA. A tariff rate of 20 percent applies to the EU.
The particularly high US special tariffs for China also came into force: Chinese goods have therefore been subject to special tariffs totaling 104 percent since midnight (0.01 local time - 6.01 CEST). Trump had recently increased the originally planned tariffs from 34 to 84 percent.
This was in response to the counter-tariffs of 34 percent announced by Beijing. The USA had initially imposed additional tariffs of 20 percent on goods from China since January. According to Trump, he had been waiting for a call from Beijing with an offer to negotiate until the very end.
