WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Travelers scrambled to rebook flights and global markets reeled on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump enforced sweeping restrictions on travel from Europe, striking battered airlines and additional straining ties with the continent.
Trump ordered travel from Europe to the United States restricted for 30 days, reacting to mounting pressure to do something about it versus a rapidly spreading out coronavirus outbreak interrupting nearly all corners of U.S. daily life.
” We are marshaling the complete power of the federal government and the private sector to safeguard the American people,” Trump said in a prime-time televised address from the Oval Office on Wednesday.
” This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to face a foreign infection in modern history.”
The travel order, which begins at midnight on Friday, does not use to Britain, or to Americans undergoing “proper screenings,” Trump said.
After triggering confusion by recommending trade with Europe would also be suspended, Trump clarified that “trade will in no way be affected.”
” The restriction stops individuals not items,” he stated on Twitter minutes after his speech.
The surprise constraints sent out monetary markets tumbling, with Euro Stoxx 50 futures plunging 8.3%to their least expensive levels considering that mid-2016 U.S. stock futures were down more than 4%.
” Already we know the financial impact is considerable, and with this extra step on top it’s simply going to multiply the impact across businesses,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia Research study at ANZ in Singapore. “This is something that markets had not factored in … it’s a big near-term econo