Trump intends to introduce reciprocal tariffs in April

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to consider the possibility of imposing reciprocal tariffs on numerous trading partners.

Bloomberg writes that this raises the possibility of a broader campaign against the global system, which he complains is directed against the United States. The President signed a decree according to which the US Trade Representative and the Secretary of Commerce propose new duties for each country to restore the balance of trade relations. This is a large-scale process that could take weeks or months. Howard Luthnick, Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Commerce, told reporters that all analyses should be completed by April 1, and Trump could act immediately after that.

According to the White House memorandum, the new import duties will be worked out separately for each country to offset not only their own duties on US goods, but also “non-tariff barriers” that countries impose in the form of “unfair subsidies, regulations, value-added taxes, exchange rates, weak intellectual property protection, and other factors that restrict US trade.”

“I have decided, in the interest of fairness, that I will levy a tariff in return, that is, on countries that levy them on the United States of America. In almost all cases, they charge us much more than we charge them, but those days are over,” Trump said.

Trump told reporters that he would also later impose import duties on cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

The Republican cited “barriers” in the European Union, including VAT, as an example of what the US wants to respond to. Trump also singled out Japan and South Korea as countries that he believes are taking advantage of the United States and could therefore be “targeted.”

Reciprocal tariffs would be Trump’s most ambitious action yet to address the US trade deficit and “unfair treatment of US exports around the world.” Trump has already imposed a 10% duty on Chinese goods and plans to impose a 25% duty on all US steel and aluminum in March.

Bloomberg notes that Trump’s decision not to impose tariffs immediately can be seen as the beginning of negotiations. He is following the same strategy that he has already used to win concessions from Mexico, Canada, and Colombia.

Tags: USA