In his inaugural address, US President Donald Trump promised to impose tariffs on foreign countries to make American citizens richer.
"Immediately, I will begin overhauling our trading system to protect American families and workers," the 47th US president said shortly after being sworn in at the Capitol in Washington.
"Instead of taxing our citizens to line the pockets of other countries, we will impose tariffs and levy duties on foreign countries that will make our citizens richer," he said in his inaugural address. "To that end, we are establishing a Foreign Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues. "We will have huge amounts of money coming into our coffers from abroad," Trump added.
"President Trump will announce a trade policy that puts America first," the White House said in a statement, adding that the country "will no longer be dependent on foreign entities for its domestic tax policy that punishes American businesses," AFP reported.
During his election campaign, Donald Trump had said he would quickly impose 25% tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada, even though the two countries are theoretically protected by a free trade agreement signed during his first term and which he then presented as "the best possible", AFP notes.
Donald Trump justifies this project as a countermeasure against the entry of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States.
The president-elect also threatened Beijing with a 10% increase in tariffs, in addition to the already existing ones taxes.