ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — US President Donald Trump on Sunday (April 6) said foreign governments would have to pay "a lot of money" to lift sweeping tariffs that he characterised as "medicine," as financial markets indicated another week of steep losses could be in store.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated he was not concerned about market losses that has already wiped out nearly US$6 trillion (S$8 trillion) in value from US stocks.

"I don't want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something," he said.

Trump said he had spoken to leaders from Europe and Asia over the weekend, who hope to convince him to lower tariffs as high as 50 per cent due to take effect this week.

"They are coming to the table. They want to talk but there's no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis," Trump said.

Trump's tariff announcement last week jolted economies around the world, triggering retaliatory levies from China and sparking fears of a global trade war and recession.

On Sunday morning talk shows, Trump's top economic advisers sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the US in the global trade order. They also tried to minimise the economic shocks from last week's tumultuous rollout. Wall Street stock futures opened sharply lower on Sunday, in a sign of further turbulence.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said more than 50 nations had started negotiations with the US since last Wednesday's announcement. "He's created maximum leverage for himself," Bessent said on NBC News' Meet the Press.

Neither Bessent nor the other officials named the countries or offered details about the talks. But simultaneously negotiating with multiple governments could pose a logistical challenge for the Trump administration and prolong economic uncertainty.

Bessent said there was "no reason" to anticipate a recession, citing stronger-than-anticipated US jobs growth last month, before the tariffs were announced.

JPMorgan economists now estimate the tariffs will result in full-year US gross domestic product declining by 0.3 per cent, down from an earlier estimate of 1.3 per cent growth, and that the unemployment rate will climb to 5.3 per cent from 4.2 per cent now.

The Republican president spent the weekend in Florida, playing golf and posting a video of his swing to social media on Sunday.

Tariff dealmaking

US customs agents began collecting Trump's unilateral 10 per cent tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday. Higher "reciprocal" tariff rates of 11 per cent to 50 per cent on individual countries are due to take effect on Wednesday at 12.01am EDT (12.01pm SGT).

Some governments have already signalled a willingness to engage with the US to avoid the duties.

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te on Sunday offered zero tariffs as the basis for talks with the US, pledging to remove trade barriers and saying Taiwanese companies will raise their US investments.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would seek a reprieve from a 17 per cent tariff on the country's goods during a planned meeting with Trump on Monday.

An Indian government official told Reuters the country does not plan to retaliate against a 26 per cent tariff and said talks were under way with the US over a possible deal.

In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — a Trump ally — pledged on Sunday to shield businesses that suffered damage from a planned 20 per cent tariff on goods from the European Union.

Italian wine producers and US importers at a wine fair in Verona on Sunday said business had already slowed and feared more lasting damage.

No strategy to tank stock market

Tariff-stunned markets face another week of potential turmoil after the worst week for US stocks since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis five years ago.

The S&P 1500 Composite Index, among the widest measures of the US market, has had almost US$10 trillion wiped out since mid-February, a significant blow to millions of Americans' retirement nest eggs.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett denied that the tariffs were part of a Trump strategy to crash financial markets to pressure the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. He said there would be no "political coercion" of the central bank.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump shared a video that suggested his tariffs aimed to hammer the stock market on purpose in a bid to force lower interest rates.

The social media post fuelled global debate over whether Trump's tariffs were part of a permanent new tariff regime or simply a negotiating tactic that could lead to the tariffs being eased through concessions by other countries.

Source: Reuters