„I think America is committing financial suicide. At least this time it will not do it with bleach. And this will cause enormous damage to the world economy and to all of us“. This was said in an interview for the program „This Morning“ on bTV Atanas Pekanov, former acting deputy prime minister responsible for the management of European funds.
„For me, this is a harmful and absurd idea. Trade deficits, or open trade, is one of the principles of recent decades that have brought a huge increase in welfare in the world,“ added Pekanov.
He also gave specific examples from life why one cannot always talk about barter in trade relations.
“In open trade, everyone tries to buy from another country what that country is better at or produces cheaper. This is the principle of globalization, from which America has gained the most in the last 60 years,“ explained the former deputy prime minister.
According to him, the problem in the US is rather that this profit is not distributed fairly within society.
“And now for them to be angry with us or others who have become better than them and punish them is inappropriate for me“, added Atanas Pekanov.
The decline in stock markets wiped out almost $6 trillion from the value of American stocks after the announcement of the tariffs.
The main stock markets in Asia collapsed at their opening today after China retaliated against the American tariffs with its own trade levies.
Among the biggest losers were the British banking giants: the shares of “HSBC“ (HSBC) fell more than 15%, while Standard Chartered fell 18%.
Wall Street stocks are also expected to fall when they open later in the day.
“Sometimes you have to take medicine,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday.