Donald Trump accuses China and EU of illegal currency manipulation
The comments signalled an undiminished appetite for battle on multiple fronts after the fallout from Trump’s dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin
US President Donald Trump on Friday launched a fresh attack on American trading partners, saying the EU and China were manipulating their currencies, and he threatened to hit all imports from China with high tariffs.
The comments also signalled an undiminished appetite for battle on multiple fronts after a week dominated by coverage of the fallout from his dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The harsh comments took fresh aim at pillars of the international economic system and underscored Trump’s break with long-established norms by again openly rebuking the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates.
The outbursts were another crosswind for Wall Street, which struggled to find direction and finished the day a hair’s breadth in negative territory.
In a pair of tweets, Trump said China, the European Union and others had been “manipulating their currencies and interest rates lower” while the US dollar strengthened, eroding “our big competitive edge.”
He said the Fed’s course of tightening monetary policy now “hurts all that we have done.”
I’m ready to put tariffs on every import from China, Trump warns
The Fed has raised the benchmark lending rate twice this year after three increases in 2017 and two more rate hikes are expected this year as the central bank removes stimulus from the economy to keep a lid on inflation.