Sunday Ehigiator with agency report
United States President, Donald Trump, has tasked his economic team to devise plans for reciprocal tariffs on every country that taxes U.S. imports, raising the risk of a global trade war with American friends and foes.
“On trade, I have decided for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them. No more, no less,” Reuters quoted Trump to have told reporters.
Trump signed a memo ordering his team to start calculating duties to match those other countries charge and to counteract non-tariff barriers such as vehicle safety rules that exclude U.S. autos and value-added taxes that increase their cost.
The latest directive stopped short of imposing more tariffs, instead kicking off what could be weeks or months of investigation into the levies imposed on U.S. goods by other trading partners and then devising a response.
Wall Street is anxious further tariffs may accelerate U.S. inflation, prevent the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates and slow economic growth. The absence of further trade measures for now, drove global markets higher.
“While global financial markets may be inclined to take some relief from the delay in the immediate imposition of reciprocal tariffs, it is not clear to us whether the delay necessarily reflects a lower likelihood that they will eventually be imposed,” Barclays analysts said in a note.
Trump’s potential targets include China, Japan, South Korea and the European Union.
Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary, said the administration would address each affected country one by one and said studies on the issue would be completed by April 1.
That is also the deadline Trump set on his first day in office for Lutnick and other economic advisers to report to him with plans to reduce the chronic trade imbalances that Trump sees as a U.S. subsidy to other countries.
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. “Tariffs are great,” he said.
