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Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2019 the President's News

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Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2019 the President's News Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2019 The President's News Conference With President Sergio Mattarella of Italy October 16, 2019 President Trump. Thank you very much. Today it is my honor to welcome President Sergio Mattarella of Italy to the White House. We've known each other for a while. We've dealt with each other for a while. And we've had some really great conversations. We've had a very productive discussion throughout the day with our staffs and representatives. And I look forward to hosting the President and his daughter Laura at a reception for Italian Americans this evening. I look forward to that very much. The United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years to Ancient Rome. Over the centuries, the Italian people have blessed our civilization with magnificent works of art, science, philosophy, architecture, and music. On Monday, we paid tribute to the Italian explorer who led a voyage of discovery to the New World, a gentleman known as Christopher Columbus. And to me, it will always be called Columbus Day. Some people don't like that; I do. Today, the United States and Italy draw strength from our cherished heritage, as we work together to safeguard our people and promote prosperity. As NATO allies, our countries cooperate closely on a wide range of critical defense issues, including the protection of our nations against radical Islamic terrorism. The problem is that Italy is only paying 1.1 percent, instead of the mandated 2 percent, which, by and of itself, is a low number. It should be probably 4 percent, anywhere from 4 to 5 percent. Only 8 of the 28 NATO countries are paying the 2 percent, meaning 20 of the countries are delinquent in the payment to NATO. And they have been for many years. Germany is at 1.3 percent, at most, depending on calculations. Spain is at less than 1 percent. Turkey, believe it or not, is almost current, almost paid up. And I want to just thank Secretary General Stoltenberg, because he is going around saying that President Trump was able to raise over $100 billion last year, which is true. But it's still only a large fraction. It's a still a large fraction of the amount of money that's owed by many of the countries that aren't paying their dues. We hope that Italy will boost its defense spending in order to meet NATO's minimum 2 percent of GDP. And I will say that they have just purchased—and we learned about it today—90 brandnew, beautiful F–35s. The Strike Fighter program is doing phenomenally well. One of our major challenges and the challenge facing NATO today is instability in the Mediterranean, North Africa areas. And much of the volatility in that region stems from the violence in Libya, which is very close to Italy's borders. The President and I were talking about that at great length. Big problem. The ongoing Libyan conflict has led to a migration crisis, placing significant and unfair burdens on Italy, in particular. I've asked that the European Union get much more involved, because they're not involved enough. That's a problem for the European Union. They do very well with us on trade. They had a trade surplus with the United States, over the last 5 or 6 years, of about $150 billion a year. They have to get more involved and help Italy. The Italian Government has stepped up as a leader to fight this illegal immigration. We urge also our NATO and European partners to take firm action to halt illegal immigration and uphold sovereign borders. Immigration control is critical to national security and essential to the well- 1 being of our citizens. Nations must be able to vet, screen, and properly manage entry and admission into society. You know the legislation that we had passed. We have absolutely no help with—from the Democrats on our borders. Absolutely nothing. The closure of loopholes, which would be very easy to do, they refuse to do. They want open borders, and Italy doesn't want open borders. And we're not going to have open borders. And our numbers are very good. I want to thank also Mexico and the President of Mexico for the great help they've given us. They've helped us much more than the Democrats. Here in the United States, we're taking dramatic action to secure our borders, shut down smuggling networks, and speed the removal of illegal immigrants. We're moving the MS–13 gang members out literally by the thousands. They're getting out. We're dropping them out of our country, and they can't come back. And what we've done with Guatemala and Honduras and El Salvador is, they tell me, close to a miracle, the agreements that we've signed. They accept them back, and they keep them back. It's a much different relationship than we've ever had with those three countries, and I want to thank the leadership of those three countries. We've been working well—very well together. Our message is clear: If you enter illegally the United States, you will be promptly returned home. They're all returning home. It takes a long time, because we've had years of people coming in, staying, and that's the end of that. President Mattarella also discussed the steps we must take to enhance commerce and economic growth between our two countries. Our nations are already investing nearly $70 billion in each other's economies. Without the burdens, as unfair as they are—imposed by the European Union—we would actually have a much higher number than $70 billion, between Italy and the United States. However, we can do more, and we can achieve fairness and reciprocity, which we don't have right now. America's trade deficit with Italy accounts for about 20 percent of our nearly $150 to $170 billion—probably, according to some estimates, could even be $178 billion—annual trade deficit with the European Union. We welcome Italy's support for a mutually beneficial trade agreement with the EU that ensures a level playing field for American workers. And it hasn't been that for many, many years. I could solve the problem instantly, but it would be too harsh. It'd be too harsh. It would involve tariffs on European products coming into this country. And for right now, we're going to try and do it without that. But that would solve the problem instantly because the United States is not being treated fairly. We also welcome Italy's participation in combating predatory trade and investment practices worldwide, especially in technology. We must work together to shield our intellectual property, critical infrastructure, ports, and data security. I applaud Italy's recent commitment to use only safe and trustworthy technology providers, components, and supply chains, especially relating to the 5G networks. We will work together to take further steps to secure the technology of the future. And speaking of 5G and how it relates to China, we've done a rather incredible trade deal— especially right now, phase one—for our farmers and for the finance industry, financial services. And it's been really quite amazing. Q. [Inaudible] President Trump. Excuse me? Is there a problem back there? 2 It's been quite amazing. The level of receptivity has been much different than in the past. China and myself—our representatives, their representatives—have made a deal from $40 [billion]* to $50 billion in farm products, agricultural products. People said we were hoping for $20 [billion].* So China has been good. And they've already started purchasing, by the way. That's already started. The agreement—we hope to have it signed sometime prior to Chile. We're going to Chile—President Xi and myself. We'll probably do a signing over there, of phase one, assuming it all gets finished up, which we think it will. There's been a lot of good will between the United States and China over the last period of time. So we're signing from $40 [billion]* to $50 billion. And that will—because it was incorrectly reported in the press, shockingly—that will take place—it's already started taking place. They're already purchasing a lot of farm product. All of the banking regulations and all of the financial services, all of the other things that are included—and there are many other things in phase one that I won't talk about now—but all of that is moving along rapidly. Bob Lighthizer is with us someplace here, and he is in the process of getting it completed. Have a great staff of people working on both sides. Mr. President, it's a true pleasure to host you in our Nation's Capital—you and your family— and your deeply personal relationship to your country; you love your country so much. Just in speaking to you for a short while, I see how much you love Italy, and I can understand that. It's really an inspiration, a testament to the patriotism and pride of the Italian people. Great spirit for Italy. America is grateful to have true friends and allies in the citizens of Italy. We have such a great relationship with the people of Italy. The United States is, likewise, thankful to be home to more than 16 million Italian Americans.
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