Steel tax rises again
On Sunday, Eastern Time, US President Trump said that the reciprocal tariffs he will announce this week will include all countries in the world, not just the 10 to 15 countries with the most serious trade deficits.
Reciprocal tariffs will be imposed on all countries
In an interview on Sunday, Trump promised that he would announce a massive tariff plan on Wednesday (April 2), which he called “Liberation Day.” Previously, he had announced that he would impose tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles.
“We will start with all countries (taxation),” he told reporters on Air Force One, “basically all the countries we are talking about.”
Earlier, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told the media that the Trump administration’s tariffs will focus on 10 to 15 countries with the most serious trade deficits, but he did not list the specific names of these countries.
But Trump’s statement on Sunday clearly overturned market speculation. He said that his reciprocal tariffs will target all countries in the world.
Trump insisted that tariffs are a way to protect the US domestic economy from unfair global competition and a bargaining chip for the United States to get better terms.
Stick to an aggressive stance
Current concerns about the US trade war have caused severe turmoil in global markets and raised concerns about a US recession.
In February, Trump signed a memorandum instructing US trade officials to visit each country and come up with a tailored list of countermeasures.
Last week, he hinted that he might scale back his reciprocal tariff plan, and in some cases the tariffs imposed might be lower than those imposed by other countries on the United States – which also indirectly shows the huge uncertainty of Trump’s tariffs.
However, people familiar with the matter revealed that Trump had previously urged his senior advisers to take a more aggressive stance on tariffs because, in his view, tariffs represent a generational opportunity for the US economy.