President Trump has said that the tariffs he plans to impose is going to apply to “all countries”, not just those with the largest trade imbalances with the United States of America.
He promised what he called a “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he will reveal the reciprocal levies to address trade practices that he seems unfair to his government.
“You’d start with all countries, so let’s see what happens,” Trump said onboard the Air Force One to the reporters present on Sunday.
“I haven’t heard a rumour about 15 countries, 10 or 15 countries,” he said when asked which countries would be affected.
“Essentially all of the countries that we’re talking about. We’ve been talking about all countries, not a cutoff.”
The upcoming tariffs had been expected to target the 15 percent of partners that have persistent trade imbalances with the United States.
Despite widening the target, the president insisted that his tariffs would be more generous than those levied against the United States.
“The tariffs will be far more generous than those countries were to us, meaning they will be kinder than those countries were to the United States of America over the decades,” he said.
“They ripped us off like no country has ever been ripped off in history and we’re going to be much nicer than they were to us. But it is substantial money for the country nevertheless.”
President Trump has already slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and additional levies on imports from China. The tariffs on imported autos are also due to take effect on April 3.
Peter Navarro ,President Trump’s top trade aide, said the tax on auto imports could raise $100 billion a year.
“And in addition, the other tariffs are going to raise about $600 billion a year, about $6 trillion over a 10-year period,” Navarro told Fox News Sunday.
The president’s plans to unleash a wide range of reciprocal tariffs risk a global trade war, with other countries already vowing to retaliate and economists warning the sweeping moves risk stoking inflation and triggering a downturn.
Trump has defended the levies as a way to raise government revenue and revitalize US industry.
