Donald Trump made good on his promise Wednesday to impose sweeping tariffs on all goods entering the U.S. in a move that’s almost universally expected to raise prices for American consumers. Announced by the president in the Rose Garden of the White House, the tariffs will include 10% across the board, with additional tariffs of much higher percentages against countries Trump thinks are treating the U.S. “unfairly.”
“This will be a big moment, I think you’re going to remember today. It’s going to be a free nation that we’re dealing with,” Trump said Wednesday. “We’re going to have a very free and beautiful nation. It’s gonna be Liberation Day in America. And it’s gonna be a day that hopefully you’re gonna look back in years to come and you’re gonna say he was right, this turned out to be one of the most important days in the history of America.”
The announcement Wednesday was defined by confusion, as nobody knew outside of Trump’s closest advisors what he would actually unveil. At one point the president held up a chart that read “reciprocal tariffs” with large numbers next to a list of countries, but it wasn’t immediately clear what each number meant. The New York Times reports that each number on the chart represents the total percentage that will be levied, not an additional number on top of the 10% baseline. For example, if the chart reads “34%” as the tariff listed on Trump’s chart, it means that there will be a 24% tariff on top of the 10% baseline.
The one exception to that rule is apparently China, where that 34% additional tariff on the chart Trump was holding up actually becomes 54%, since there was already a 20% tariff imposed on goods coming from China, according to CNBC. And to say that such a move would raise prices for everything imported from China seems like an understatement at this point.
Trump failed to announce when the tariffs would be enacted, but reporters figured it out long after the Rose Garden spectacle talking to White House officials. The 10% baseline tariffs will go into effect on April 5 at 12:01 a.m. and the larger tariffs will go into effect on April 9 at 12:01 a.m., according to the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper doesn’t specify the time zone but that would presumably be Eastern time.
Trump’s tariffs will be imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, according to the Journal, with the Trump regime claiming that trade deficits somehow constitute a national emergency under the law. Trump used the same pretext to institute tariffs against Canada and Mexico, claiming that the flow of drugs from those countries was an “emergency.”
According to the chart Trump displayed, the list of tariffs imposed on each country will include:
- China: 34%
- European Union: 20%
- Vietnam: 46%
- Taiwan: 32%
- Japan: 24%
- India: 26%
- South Korea: 25%
- Thailand: 36%
- Switzerland: 31%
- Indonesia: 32%
- Malaysia: 24%
- Cambodia: 49%
- United Kingdom: 10%
- South Africa: 30%
- Brazil: 10%
- Bangladesh: 37%
- Singapore: 10%
- Israel: 17%
- Philippines: 17%
- Chile: 10%
- Australia: 10%
- Pakistan: 29%
- Turkey: 10%
- Sri Lanka: 44%
- Colombia: 10%
Large tariffs on goods from China, Taiwan, and Japan would surely raise the prices of electronics that Americans buy every day. And the ripple effects would be enormous, even for goods produced in the U.S. that use parts sourced from around the world.
Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein tweeted out photos of additional pages displaying the tariffs that didn’t get included in Trump’s chart, which ranged from the lower end like New Zealand and Saudi Arabia which got hit with the baseline of 10% to countries like Laos (48%), Madagascar (47%), and Botswana (37%).
Incredibly, it appears the Trump regime has imposed a 10% tariff on goods coming from the Heard and McDonald Islands, an Australian territory which lies in between Madagascar and Antarctica. Why is that incredible? Because the Heard and McDonald Islands are uninhabited.
Trump bragged Wednesday about how he supposedly had succeeded at fighting inflation, insisting “We had virtually no inflation during my first term,” something that conveniently ignored the inflation that would start during the end of his term due to the covid-19 pandemic. But virtually every economist in the world believes that Trump’s new tariffs will jack up prices on everything. S&P 500 Futures fell 2.2% during Trump’s announcement, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Additional tariffs on Canada and Mexico didn’t appear to be included in the new list, but that may have something to do with discontent by elected Republicans in the Senate. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Kentucky senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul are reportedly supporting Democratic legislation that would stop Trump’s ability to impose such broad tariffs. It’s unclear whether such legislation, which is expected to be taken up today, will actually pass. But even if it passes the Senate, it would be dead on arrival in the House.
Allies of the United States were quick to denounce the tariffs, including the prime minister of Australia, which just got hit with Trump’s baseline 10% tariff. Anthony Albanese said the tariffs were “not the act of a friend.”
“These tariffs are not unexpected, but let me be clear, they are totally unwarranted,” Albanese said according to Sky News Australia. “President Trump referred to reciprocal tariffs. A reciprocal tariff would be zero, not 10%. The administration’s tariffs have no basis in logic, and they go against the basis of our two nations’ partnership.”
And it sounds like the Israelis aren’t happy with Trump’s new tariffs either. Israel just dropped all tariffs on U.S. goods on Tuesday. But a reporter for Israel’s i24News, Amichai Stein, tweeted Wednesday that economic officials were in “complete shock” by the announcement from the White House that Israel would be paying 10% tariffs.
“We are in shock. We were sure that the decision to completely cancel tariffs on imports from the U.S. would prevent this move. But it didn’t happen,” Stein quoted the officials as saying.
The idea behind Trump’s tariffs (or at least the stated reason beyond his bullshit about fentanyl coming into the country) is that the president wants more goods to be manufactured in the U.S. However, it can take years for companies to shift plans to produce goods, and it simply doesn’t make sense for every country to produce everything it consumes. The rise of globalization has built complex supply chains that lower costs for consumers, but Trump thinks he can change all that with his tariff plans.
“If you want your tariff rate to be zero, then you build your product right here in America,” Trump said Wednesday.
The American people will find out soon enough whether jobs will come flooding back into the U.S. or if the prices for everyday items just skyrocket. Most economists think it will only be the latter. And the markets clearly believe the same, with stocks absolutely cratering in after-hours trading.
English (US) ·