Buffett criticizes Trump: trade should not be a weapon

The legendary US investor Warren Buffett criticized Donald Trump’s customs policy-but without naming the president. “Trade should not be a weapon,” said 94-year-old Buffett at the shareholder meeting of his Holding Berkshire Hathaway. The United States should act with other countries – and the richer the rest of the world will be, “this will not be at our expense”, but will also make America richer.

Trump announced high import duties – with the declared goal of bringing more production into the country. The US President also sees the high trade deficit as a problem: in the United States, goods are inserted into significantly higher value than exported. Trump quickly stopped the tariffs for most countries after the stock exchanges and financial markets had then collapsed. Experts also expect delivery bottlenecks in the United States in the coming months through the China-Zölle, which has remained in force.

Buffett had once proposed import certificates to reduce the trade deficit. The idea was that companies received import rights for exports from the USA, which they can then sell to other companies. He admitted to the shareholder meeting on Saturday that the idea was not popular.

Buffett warned the United States against raising the rest of the world. In his view, it would be “a big mistake” if 7.5 billion people don’t like one and 300 million burst with how well they are. “I don’t think that’s right – and I don’t think that is the way,” emphasized Buffett.

Berkshire Hathaway includes the Geico insurer, the BNSF railway company, the fast food chain Dairy Queen and the battery manufacturer Duracell. The holding company also holds investments in many other companies such as Apple and Coca-Cola.

Berkshire was originally a small textile company. Buffett bought it in the 1960s and turned it into an extremely successful investment company. His sense of good business ensured that Berkshires investments in various companies have developed significantly better over the years than the stock market on average.