President Donald Trump said he has warned leaders of Japan and China against devaluing their currencies to gain an unfair trade advantage.
“I’ve called … [Chinese leader] Xi [Jinping], I’ve called the leaders of Japan to say: ‘You can’t continue to reduce and break down your currency. You can’t do it because it’s unfair to us,’” the president said on Monday at the White House as he signed an executive order doubling tariffs on Chinese imports, from 10 percent to 20 percent. He didn’t specify when these conversations took place.
“You can’t do it because it’s unfair to us. It’s very hard for us to make tractors [by] Caterpillar here when Japan, China, and other places are killing their currency, meaning driving it down,” he continued. “So all of these things add up, and the way you solve it very easily is with tariffs….