Secretary Rubio Responds To Trump’s Tariffs On The EU: ‘We Need To Equalize’ Treatment’

3 minutes ago

During Friday’s press conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio answered questions about Trump's comments regarding EU trade policy with the US.

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Transcript

00:00Secretary, the President, and your meeting with Foreign Minister Kofi, do you understand

00:06why the Canadians are taking such umbrage at these comments coming from the President?

00:12Is that something that you think?

00:14The Canadian government has made their position, how they feel about it, clear.

00:18The President has made his argument as to why he thinks Canada would be better off joining

00:22the United States for economic purposes.

00:25There's a disagreement between the President's position and the position of the Canadian

00:28government.

00:29It's a mystery coming in and it wasn't a topic of conversation because that's not what

00:32the summit was about.

00:33Mr. Secretary, you said that the tariff policy was not hostile, however, President Trump

00:39yesterday in his social media post said that the EU previously had been hostile and abusive

00:45towards the United States.

00:46How do you square that?

00:47And secondly, is he serious when he's talking about the 51st state being Canada?

00:52Well, I've already answered the question about Canada.

00:54Is he serious?

00:55Do you take him seriously?

00:56We're not discussing that here today because that's not what the purpose of this meeting

01:00was about.

01:01As far as the question that you're asking me about hostility, yeah, look at the EU.

01:04The EU has a GDP basically comparable to that of the United States.

01:09The composition of their economy is similar to ours.

01:11These are not developing countries, these are developed countries.

01:14And yet they have a significant trade surplus with the United States, even though our economies

01:18are pretty much the same.

01:19These are not low-wage countries.

01:20That's a problem.

01:21All the President is saying is we need to equalize treatment.

01:26Whatever they do to us, we need to do to them, in addition to pointing to certain sectors

01:30that we have to protect.

01:32Who can argue against the idea that if some country charges us X to export our products,

01:37we should charge them the same?

01:38I get it.

01:39If you're a country or the EU that's benefiting from the status quo, you feel it is hostile

01:44to change the status quo because it's to your benefit.

01:46The problem is the President of the United States is looking out for the United States,

01:50both in national security and in economic relations.

01:53We will reset the basis of our trade relationship, and then we can enter into negotiations for

01:58something that's enduring and fair to both sides.

02:01That's what the President seeks to do, and that's what begins by resetting, in a reciprocal

02:06way, the amount of tariffs we charge one another in our trade relations.

Secretary Rubio Responds To Trump’s Tariffs On The EU: ‘We Need To Equalize’ Treatment’

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