World Economic Forum 2018: US President Trump warns about 'unfair trade' in keynote speech
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US President Donald Trump tried to walk a fine line between populism and globalisation on Friday, as he delivered the closing keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. CGTN's Jack Barton has this report from Davos.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly scorned multilateral trade deals, international institutions and the World Economic Forum, making him the odd man out here in Davos.
Though on Friday his fundamental message was that following big tax cuts the U.S. is a great destination for foreign investment and that putting America first was a not a call for isolationism.
DONALD TRUMP US PRESIDENT "But America first does not mean America alone. When the United States grows, so does the world. American prosperity has created countless jobs all around the globe and the drive for excellence, creativity and innovation in the U.S. has led to important discoveries that help people everywhere live more prosperous and far healthier lives."
Trump said the U.S. might even consider re-entering talks with what are now 11 other countries in an expanded and re-named Trans-Pacific Trade partnership if he considered the deal fair.
DONALD TRUMP US PRESIDENT "We cannot have free and open trade if some countries exploit the system at the expense of others. We support free trade, but it needs to be fair and it needs to be reciprocal. Because in the end unfair trade undermines us all."
Despite threats of a walkout Trump was only booed once, when he referred to the mainstream media as fake news.
JACK BARTON DAVOS "Before his speech Trump said in an interview that he regretted re-posting anti-Muslim videos put online by a British ultra-nationalist group, saying he would not have done so if he'd known they were posted by 'horrible, racist people'."
But there was no apology to African delegates for the obscene and derogatory remark he recently made about their countries. And most of the facts and figures Trump used in the address were also criticized.
JOSEPH STIGLITZ NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING ECONOMIST "He claimed there were more job creation. In fact, in the last couple of years of the Obama administration, there were much more job creation than Trump. Trump is actually twenty percent below Obama, but he would hate that. But those are the facts."
The president departed almost as soon as his speech concluded, heading home to deal with a myriad of issues from immigration reform to damaging reports that he sought to fire the special counsel investigating his election campaign's alleged links to the Russian government. Jack Barton, CGTN at the World Economic Forum in Davos.