Stock markets across the world fell heavily on Monday after Donald Trump suggested that new tariffs he is expected to announce this week would hit “all countries”.
Within the first few minutes of opening Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 302 points, or .74 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 320 points, or 1.85 percent.
Last week, Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on foreign-made cars that would go into effect this week and will be “permanent.”
“This is the beginning of Liberation Day in America,” Trump said. “We’re going to charge countries for doing business in our country and taking our jobs, taking our wealth, taking a lot of things that they’ve been taking over the years. They’ve taken so much out of our country, friend and foe. And, frankly, friend has been oftentimes much worse than foe.”
US/Russia deal?
It comes as Washington and Moscow have begun discussions on projects related to Russian rare earth metals, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, has said.
“Rare earth metals are an important area of cooperation and, of course, we have started discussions on various rare earth metals and projects in Russia,” he told pro-Kremlin Russian newspaper Izvestia.
Putin in February suggested that the United States might be interested in exploring joint exploration for rare earth metals deposits in Russia, which has the world’s fifth-largest reserves of the metals used in lasers and military equipment.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates Russia’s reserves of rare earth metals at 3.8 million metric tons but Moscow has far higher estimates.
According to the Natural Resources Ministry, Russia has reserves of 15 rare earth metals totalling 28.7 million tons as of January 1, 2023 and that 3.8 million tons is the amount of reserves under development or ready for development.
It could also be why the race to take over Greenland is so crucial to Trump.
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