Amid heightened uncertainty and nervousness surrounding US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, ace investor and founder of AI-tech company GQuant, Shankar Sharma, believes Trump is a bigger threat to the US than to the world.
“Donald Trump poses a greater risk to America than to the rest of the world. His only plan seems to be raising tariffs, and I fail to understand how, on earth, that is good for America,” Sharma said in an exclusive interview with Mint.
Sharma believes Trump’s tariff policies will raise cost of goods and stoke inflation in the US which will reduce the purchasing power of Americans.
He explained his views with an example of Trump’s threat to Colombia with higher tariffs on coffee which will raise coffee prices in the US, affecting consumers.
“Trump has threatened Colombia with higher tariffs on coffee. Let us say Colombian coffee was getting imported at $5 a kilo, 1,000 tons pa. If the prices become $6 per kilo because of tariffs, do you think Americans will start consuming less coffee? Absolutely not,” Sharma said.
Trump threatens several countries
Trump has threatened tariffs against several countries. According to a Reuters report, the US president said on Thursday that the US would impose a 25 per cent tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada.
Moreover, he cautioned BRICS nations against replacing the US dollar as the reserve currency, reiterating a threat of 100 per cent tariffs he had made shortly after winning the November presidential elections.
Experts believe Trump’s tariff policies will drive up inflation in the US, jeopardizing the Federal Reserve’s efforts to keep price increases under control.
On January 29, the US central bank kept interest rates unchanged, stating that there is no urgency to adjust its policy stance and that the rate pause is intended to assess further progress on inflation.
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