Omaha. Investor Warren Buffett on Saturday told thousands of shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway that the United States should not use “trade as a weapon” and enraged the rest of the world as President Donald Trump has done with his tariffs that have shaken global markets.
“It is a big mistake in my opinion when you have 7,500 million people who do not love you much, and you have 300 million that boast of how well they have gone,” Buffett said when addressing the issue that was in everyone’s mind at the beginning of the shareholders meeting.
Although Buffett said that the best thing is that trade is balanced among countries, he does not believe that Trump is doing it in the right way with his generalized tariffs.
“We should be looking to trade with the rest of the world. We should do what we do better and they should do what they do better,” he said.
The tariffs were the main theme on which the shareholders asked in the list they sent in advance to the reporter of CNBC which will question Buffett and his two main managers throughout the day. But investors will also seek to explain why he is sitting on 347 thousand 700 million dollars in cash in Berkshire.
The businessman said that he simply does not see many investments at attractive prices that he understands these days, but he predicted that one day Berkshire will be “bombarded with opportunities for which we will be happy to have cash.”
Haibo Liu camped during the night outside the stadium to be the first in row this Saturday morning. Liu said he is worried that this year could be Buffett’s last meeting since he is 94 years old, so he made a priority to attend his second meeting.
“He has helped me a lot,” said Liu, who traveled from China to attend. “I really want to express my thanks to him.”
The meeting attracts about 40 thousand people every year they want to listen to Buffett, including some famous known investors. This year, Hillary Rodham Clinton also attended. Clinton was the last candidate that Buffett supported publicly because he has moved away from politics and any issue controversial in recent years for fear of harming Berkshire’s businesses.
The Linda Smith shareholder, 73, met Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway for the first time when she rented a room of her sister, Doris, while she was a postgraduate student at Washington DC Smith said Doris returned from an annual meeting shortly after Berkshire bought See’s Candy and said she had to buy the shares.
Smith could not buy them immediately because the price of a single share was sold for around 3,400 dollars and that was equal to their income as a postgraduate student. But as soon as he got a job after university, he followed his friend’s advice and began saving to buy some of the shares that are now sold for 809 thousand 350 dollars.
Over the years, Smith estimates that he has probably attended about 20 annual meetings, often taking a friend.
“I really like to listen to Warren Buffett, especially this year with everything that has happened,” said Smith.
