Washington — President Trump on Wednesday announced he’s signing an executive order to impose “reciprocal tariffs,” as the world waits to see exactly what those tariffs entail, and in the face of warnings from economists over increased prices.
In announcing the tariffs, the president insisted the days of the U.S. being taken advantage of are “over.”
“It’s our declaration of economic independence,” the president said in the White House Rose Garden on what he has named “Liberation Day.”
Mr. Trump said “horrendous” trade imbalances have hurt the U.S. and put national security at risk, placing blame on previous U.S. presidents and administrations.
The president said his moves Wednesday are also standing up for U.S. farmers and ranchers who have been “brutalized” by other countries, specifically blasting Canada.
Mr. Trump said Americans “subsidize” other countries, calling out the European Union, China, South Korea and Australia for their trade practices.
“They’ve taken so much of our wealth away from us,” Mr. Trump said of other countries.
Mr. Trump lamented that the U.S. imports phones and other electronics, as well as pharmaceuticals, saying that if there’s a war, the U.S. would struggle.
“In short, chronic trade deficits are no longer merely an economic, they’re a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life,” the president said. “And for these reasons, starting tomorrow, the United States will implement reciprocal tariffs.
What new tariffs will Trump announce today?
The president hasn’t yet said what the tariff rates on foreign goods will be and whether they will be global or affect only products from specific countries, and on Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president was still finalizing the details of the plan with his trade team. But Leavitt said Monday that the president’s plan will place reciprocal tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners. And on Tuesday, she said the reciprocal tariffs will go into effect “immediately.”
In the audience for the president’s announcement are rank-and-file steelworkers and auto workers, House Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as most of Mr. Trump’s Cabinet, including Vice President JD Vance.
The 25% tariffs the president has announced on foreign cars and foreign auto parts are set to go into effect at midnight.
Leavitt said the president’s new tariffs will bring back manufacturing jobs, “improve American competitiveness in every area of industry, reduce our massive trade deficits, and ultimately protect our economic and national security.”
“Too many foreign countries have their markets closed to our exports,” Leavitt said Tuesday. “This is fundamentally unfair. The lack of reciprocity contributes to our large and persistent annual trade deficit that’s gutted our industries and hollowed out key workforces. But those days of America … being ripped off are over. American workers and businesses will be put first under President Trump, just as he promised on the campaign trail.”
Shawn Fain, president of United Auto Workers, told CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” Sunday that tariffs are one tool to get companies to bring jobs back to the U.S.
“Tariffs are a tool in the toolbox to get these companies to do the right thing, and- and the intent behind it is to bring jobs back here,” Fain said. “And, you know, invest in the American workers. The American working class people have been left behind for decades, and they’re sick of it.”
What are tariffs, exactly?
Tariffs are duties paid on goods imported into the U.S. The most common type of tariffs are ad valorem tariffs (Latin for “according to the value”), which represent a fixed percentage tax on the value of a product. The 25% auto tariffs are these types of tariffs.
There are also “specific” tariffs, which are levied as a fixed charge per unit, and “tariff-rate quotas,” which are taxes triggered by reaching a specific import threshold.
What do financial experts say about tariffs?
Economists and taxpayer advocacy groups have their doubts, and are warning tariffs could upset economic growth and will almost surely contribute to higher prices for American consumers. Some automakers have already announced higher car prices, after the president announced tariffs on foreign cars and parts.
More than a dozen leaders at think tanks and taxpayer advocacy groups, including at the National Taxpayers Union, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, on Tuesday sent a joint letter to congressional leaders and the commerce and treasury secretaries, urging them to consider how tariffs on steel, lumber, energy, pharmaceutical and medical supplies and cars and car parts will increase prices.
“We encourage you to consider whether tariffs may, in many cases, undermine President Trump’s broader long-term economic goals by increasing the cost of goods subject to tariffs,” they wrote. “We are especially concerned about tariffs on inputs needed by U.S. manufacturers that make it harder to compete with finished goods made abroad and tariffs that increase the price of necessities like food and housing.”
Alex Jacquez, who worked on the Biden White House National Economic Council, said that although it’s hard to know the exact impact of Mr. Trump’s tariffs without knowing all the details, CEOs are telling investors and shareholders they will be hiking prices.
“What the major retailers and companies who may be affected by tariffs are planning to do and they’re planning out in public here is pass these costs along to consumers as much as they possibly can,” Jacquez, now the chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, said on a call with reporters Tuesday.
Colin Grabow, associate director at the libertarian Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, wrote in a USA Today op-ed that “tariffs are a costly and inefficient tax usually borne by the importing country’s customers.”
“Americans may have voted for lower prices in November, but under the guise of tariff reciprocity, the Trump administration is set to deliver something very different,” Grabow wrote.
A reporter on Tuesday asked Leavitt if the president is thinking about seniors on fixed income who are stressed about the recent swings in the stock market, swings partly attributed to the president’s tariff announcements. Stocks have struggled as Wall Street braces for the next round of tariffs.
“Well certainly, they are legitimate concerns and the president takes those concerns very seriously,” Leavitt said. “And he’s addressing them every single day. And tomorrow’s announcement is to protect future generations of the senior citizens you mentioned. It’s for their kids and their grandkids, to ensure that there are jobs here in the United States of America for their children to live the American dream, just like they presumably did.”
And the president told NBC News he “couldn’t care less” if his tariffs lead to automakers raising their prices.
“I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars,” he told NBC.
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Jennifer Jacobs
contributed to this report.
