AP, Manila :
President Donald Trump headed for home Tuesday following an extensive tour of Asia that he said had been “tremendously successful” and had put the world on notice that the “rules have changed” for countries that want to trade with the U.S.
Trump also teased a “major statement” on trade and the trip later this week at the White House, where he is expected to promote congressional Republicans’ plan to overhaul the nation’s tax code.
As Air Force One rolled down the runway in Manila, Trump told the reporters traveling with him that “it’s been a really great 12 days.” And on trade, the president said confidently that U.S. trading partners “will be treating us much differently than before.”
“I think the fruits of our labor are going to be incredible, whether it’s security of our nations, whether it’s security of the world or whether it’s trade,” Trump said.
Trump, who campaigned for office on a promise to tear up multilateral trade agreements that he said have harmed the U.S., insisted during the nearly two-week trip that multibillion-dollar deficits that favor U.S. trading partners will be reduced to zero, and that trade overall must be fair and mutually beneficial.
“The United States has to be treated fairly and in a reciprocal fashion,” he tweeted Tuesday. “The massive TRADE deficits must go down quickly!”
Trump pressed that point on every stop on the grueling tour of Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, blaming his predecessors for yawning trade imbalances and declaring that the United States will no longer be taken advantage of under his watch.
“We’ve had a tremendously successful trip,” Trump told reporters before departing his third summit of the trip. “Tremendous amounts of work was done on trade.
” Trump said $300 billion in deals had been reached, a sum he predicted would more than triple in a short period of time.
