BREAKING: Trump to impose ‘fair and reciprocal’ tariffs against all trading partners
“You go to the individual country and you look at what they’re charging us. In almost all cases, they’re charging us vastly more than we charge them. Those days are over.”
President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Thursday directing the assessment of “fair and reciprocal” trade tariffs on all major U.S. trading partners.
The memo tasks Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and global trade representative Jamieson Greer with evaluating the need for “remedies” to ensure balanced trade within 180 days.
“On trade, I have decided on, for the purpose of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff,” Trump said on Thursday. Meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them, no more, no less. In other words, they charge us a tax on tariffs, we charge them the exact same tax. Very simple. Nobody knows what that number is… You go to the individual country and you look at what they’re charging us. In almost all cases, they’re charging us vastly more than we charge them. Those days are over.”
“For purposes of this United States Policy, we will consider countries that use the VAT system, which is far more punitive than a tariff, to be similar to that of a tariff, sending merchandise, product, or anything by any other name through another country, for purposes of unfairly harming America, will not be accepted. In addition, we will make provision for subsidies provided by Countries in order to take Economic advantage of the United States,” Trump posted.
Additionally, Russ Vought, Trump’s nominee for the Office of Management and Budget, will provide a report on the fiscal impact of these measures during the same period.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.