U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a roadmap on Thursday for charging reciprocal tariffs on every country that charges duties on U.S. imports, his latest trade salvo directed at American friends and foes that the White House says will strengthen economic and national security, APA reports citing Reuters.
"Today is the big one: reciprocal tariffs," Trump wrote on his social media platform ahead of his announcement.
The tariffs were not going into effect on Thursday but could begin to be imposed within weeks as Trump's trade and economic team study bilateral tariff and trade relationships, a White House official told reporters on a conference call.
The administration would examine what it called the most "egregious" issues first, including countries with the biggest trade surpluses and highest tariff rates.
Trump's reciprocal tariffs would match the higher duty rates charged by other countries, the White House official said. They also 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.
The effort also aims to launch negotiations with some countries to reduce these barriers.
The announcement appeared designed at least in part to trigger talks with other countries. The official said Trump would be more than happy to lower tariffs if other nations lowered theirs.
"So the president is more than happy to lower tariffs if countries want to lower tariffs. But let's also recognize that tariffs, higher tariffs, are not the biggest part of the problem in many, if not most cases," the official said.
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