US President Donald Trump has said that he would announce reciprocal tariffs next week that match the duties announced by other nations, Politico reported.
Addressing a press briefing with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, Trump said, “I’ll be announcing that next week, reciprocal trade so that we’re treated evenly with other countries.”
He said, “We don’t want any more, any less.” Previously, Trump had threatened to slap a 10 per cent or 20 per cent universal tariff and asked his administration to review that possibility as part of a broader trade review due by April 1. Trump, who announced that the tariffs would be applicable to every nation, added that the announcement would likely be made on “Monday or Tuesday,” Politico reported.
He said, “I think that’s the only fair way to do it that way nobody’s hurt.” Donald Trump said, “They charge us, we charge them. It’s the same thing, and I seem to be going in that line as opposed to a flat fee tariff.” In many cases, the US has lower tariffs than other nations for the same product, although Trump did not mention whether there would be exclusions of the new round of tariffs. The US President often speaks about high tariffs imposed by foreign governments on cars, where the US duty is only 2.5 per cent. During his presidential campaign, Trump announced that he would work with Congress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Act, which would give him the authority to increase tariffs on a particular foreign good to the level imposed by that nation.
In a campaign video, he said, “Under the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act, other countries will have two choices—they’ll get rid of their tariffs on us, or they will pay us hundreds of billions of dollars, and the United States will make an absolute fortune.”
He said, “If India, China, or any other country hits us with a 100 or 200 per cent tariff on American-made goods, we will hit them with the same exact tariff. In other words, 100 percent is 100 percent. If they charge us, we charge them – an eye for an eye, a tariff for a tariff, same amount.”
Currently, exporters in nearly every nation around the world face the same tariffs on their exports to the US, although the individual US tariff rates differ based on the product. Tariff rates for products like cars are low, while tariff rates for clothing and shoes are generally high, according to a Politico report.
Under Trump’s “reciprocal tariff” approach, thousands of products in the US tariff code could have as many different tariff levels as there are many nations in the world. Politico reported that the decision would vastly raise the complexity of collecting tariffs on goods. Earlier in January, a group of Republicans introduced the Reciprocal Trade Act in the House. If Trump enforces a reciprocal tariff system, it would be another power grab from Congress and could spark legal challenges from companies affected by the decision.
