The president of the United States, Donald Trump, delivered the first international speech of his second term, appearing via live broadcast against the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
However, Thursday’s comments adopted a combative approach to international diplomacy, since it once again threatened to impose tariffs on foreign competitors, and even allies such as the European Union (EU) and Canada.
“My message to all the companies in the world is very simple: come to manufacture their product in the United States and we will apply one of the lowest taxes of any nation in the world,” Trump said.
“But if you do not manufacture your product in the United States, which is your prerogative, then you will simply have to pay a tariff. Different amounts, but a tariff. ”
Trump, a real estate and former star of reality shows, faced a mostly friendly audience in the Davos forum, known for gathering some of the most important business leaders in the world.
Many of those who raised questions after their speech were presented as people Trump knew well, or even identified as their friends.
The Republican’s speech occurred just three days after his inauguration in Washington, DC, and his comments echoed many of the points he raised in his inaugural speech, promising once again to bring a “golden age” to states to states Joined.
He also reiterated his usual grievance list, even against his predecessor, former president Joe Biden, and members of the previous administration.
“They have allowed other nations to take advantage of the United States. We cannot allow that to happen again, ”said Trump.
Here are five key conclusions of Trump’s speech.
Trump uses a stick and carrot approach
The leader of the Republican party headed his speech with a broad call to business leaders around the world, asking them to transfer their industries to the United States.
He promoted plans to cut corporate taxes and lower interest rates to create a favorable climate to business growth.
“My administration has also started the greatest deregulation campaign in history, far exceeding the record efforts of my last mandate,” Trump said.
He offered a vision of American prosperity that would benefit the entire world.
“They say there is light shining around the world from the elections. And even the countries with which we are not especially friends are happy because they understand that there is a future and how great the future will be, ”he said.
“Under our leadership, the United States is back and open to business.”
But, he warned, tariffs would be imposed on companies that refuse to invest in this vision of American success.
In recent months, Trump has already threatened to impose tariffs of up to 60 percent to Chinese products and 25 percent to articles from Mexico and Canada.
Trump criticizes the European Union
The president, however, reserved special anger towards the EU, which he accused of imposing cumbersome regulations and attacking US companies.
He cited recent antitrust cases against technological titans based in the United States.
“They carried judicial cases with Apple and supposedly won a case that most people did not believe it was a big case,” Trump said. “They won thousands of millions to Google. I think they are behind Facebook for thousands and billions. ”
Implied that the cases were motivated, in part, by the country of origin of the companies.
“These are US companies,” Trump said. “They shouldn’t be doing that. As regards me, it is a form of tax. ”
The United States is the main commercial partner of the EU and, in 2022, it had a trade deficit of 131,000 million dollars with the 27 nations block. According to US government statistics, the United States exported goods worth $ 592 billion to the EU and imported 723 billion dollars.
Most economists believe that deficits are not necessarily a signal of problems: the imbalance in trade can be the result of numerous factors, including differences in the value of currency and consumer spending habits.
But Trump has focused on commercial deficits as a sign of economic weakness, and once again he has promised to eliminate them, as promised in his first term, from 2017 to 2021.
He also compared taxes to the added value of Europe (also known as VAT taxes) with a “non -economic or monetary tariff.”
“From the United States point of view, the EU treats us very, very unfair. Very bad, ”said Trump. “Basically, our agricultural products or cars are not carried. However, cars send us by millions. They put tariffs on the things we want to do. ”
Canada: become a state or face tariffs
In the weeks prior to the Davos Conference, Trump made it clear that he hopes to expand the borders of the United States in the coming years, putting the Panama and Greenland channel under their control.
At a press conference this month, Trump even refused to rule out the “military or economic coercion” in his search for those two territories.
But on Thursday in Davos, Trump spoke briefly about another country in La Loca: Canada.
Trump has repeatedly said that he would like to see Canada become the “State 51”, causing the anger of the northern United States.
“We are going to demand respect for other nations,” Trump said in Davos, focusing immediately on Canada. “We have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We are not going to have that anymore. We can’t do it. ”
According to the United States Government, Canada was the largest buyer of products in the country in 2022, with 356.5 billion dollars in purchases. An estimated 2.7 billion dollars The value of goods and services crossed the border between the United States and Canada every day in 2023.
But Trump has pledged to impose tariffs elevated to Canada, as a means to force the country to address drug trafficking and irregular migration through the border.
In Davos, however, Trump suggested another way to avoid tariffs.
“As you probably know, I say: ‘You can always become a state. And then, if you are a state, we will not have a deficit. We will not have to impose tariffs, ”Trump said.
Economists, however, have warned that tariffs can be counterproductive, since other countries could respond to the United States with their own tariffs, whose cost would probably fall into consumers.
Trump denounces that Ukraine is a “extermination field”
Despite its aggressive stance towards tariffs and commercial deficits, Trump once again proclaimed its self -written role as a peacemaker, pointing out the large -scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
The war broke out in 2022, and in Davos, Trump once again took the opportunity to blame his predecessor, Biden, to allow the invasion to develop.
But another objective also pointed out: oil prices.
“If the price dropped, the war between Russia and Ukraine would end immediately,” Trump said. “At this time, the price is high enough for war to continue. You have to lower the price of oil. You’re going to end that war. ”
While war has uploaded energy prices, it is not clear how Trump imagined that the oil market would end the war in Ukraine. The sanctions due to war have already exerted significant pressure on the Russian economy.
Trump himself has threatened with new sanctions and “high levels” of tariffs against Russia, if he does not quickly end his war against Ukraine.
In Davos, he regretted the hundreds of thousands of lost lives on the battlefield.
“That is an absolute extermination field. Millions of soldiers are being killed, ”said Trump. “No one has seen anything similar since World War II. They are killed by all flat fields. ”
But, he added, the efforts to ensure a peace agreement “It is expected that they are now underway.” He also advanced a possible agreement with Russia to dismantle all or part of its nuclear arsenal.
“We would like to see denuclearization,” Trump said, citing conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his first term.
“I will tell you that President Putin really liked the idea of considerably cutting nuclear energy. And I think the rest of the world would have achieved us, and China would have followed us. ”
Trump mocks climate change policies
As part of his impulse due to deregulation, Trump once again lashed out against environmental policies designed to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the climatic crisis.
It is estimated that the United States is the second largest source of annual carbon emissions in the world, behind China. These emissions, largely from fossil fuels, enter the atmosphere as greenhouse gases that capture heat and cause an increase in temperatures.
Even so, on Monday Trump withdrew once again from the Paris Agreement, an international climate agreement designed to reduce emissions.
He had previously withdrawn the United States from the agreement in 2019 during his first term, although Biden returned to him in 2021.
In Davos, Trump described again the Paris Climate Agreement as “unilateral.” And reiterated his promise to “unlock” the fossil fuel reserves of the United States.
“The United States has the greatest amount of oil and gas in any country on Earth. And we are going to use it, ”said Trump, promising“ rapid approval ”for energy projects.
Trump also made fun of his political adversaries for promoting a “new green agreement”, a series of political proposals in the United States designed to reduce carbon emissions.
“It was conceived by people who were average students, students below the average,” Trump said.
He accused the architects of carbon reduction policies of selling sensationalism.
“Do you remember that the world was going to end in 12 years? Do you remember that? Well, 12 years passed. I was going to end. Everything was going to become a foam on earth. ”
Even so, climate exchange experts have indicated that 2024 was the hottest year registered and, if current trends continue, the weather could be intensified, which would cause more mortal natural disasters.
The United States is already dealing with devastating forest fires in southern California who have killed at least 27 people, probably aggravated by an unusually dry climate.
