TRUMP UNVEILS TARIFFS PLAN – Trump says his reciprocal tariffs will level the playing field
U.S. President Donald Trump tasked his economics team with devising a plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on every country that imposes duties on U.S. imports in a fresh salvo at American friends and foes ramping up prospects for a global trade war.
Trump signed a memo ordering his team to start calculating reciprocal tariffs to match those charged by other countries and counteract non-tariff barriers.
The president has been promising to introduce reciprocal tariffs, but Thursday’s directive stopped well short of that, instead kicking off what will be weeks or months of investigation into the levies imposed on U.S. goods by other trading partners and then devising a response.
Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to bring down consumer prices, said prices could go up in the short term as a result of the moves.
Trump’s tariffs would match the higher duties charged by other countries, he said, and would aim to counteract non-tariff trade barriers such as burdensome regulations, value-added taxes, government subsidies and exchange rate policies that can erect barriers to the flow of U.S. products to foreign markets.
