US President Donald Trump has signed a plan to roll out an increase in import duties for all trading partners that tax US imports, saying he is doing so to bring a sense of “fairness” to commerce .
Sitting in an oval office on Thursday, Trump described the tariffs as mutual. This means that the US will automatically raise import taxes to meet the existing levels of other countries.
“In trade, I have decided to charge mutual tariffs for fair purposes. So what does the country that charges the United States charge? No more, no less,” he said. Ta.
“In almost every case, they charge us much more than we charge them,” he added. “But those days are over.”
Experts have raised concerns that Trump’s tariffs could trigger a global trade war that will cause prices to skyrocket, but Trump has long viewed trade as a matter of winners and losers. An overseas alliance.
His heavy reliance on tariffs is also seen as a departure from longtime bipartisan consensus on expanding free trade agreements with other countries.
Taxes on Thursday are not expected to start anytime soon as they require different tax increases depending on fees in different countries, a process that could take weeks.
Also on Thursday, he as BRICS, named after founding members of Brazil, Russia, India and China, with “at least 100% tariffs” if the group proceeds with a hypothetical plan to establish a common. It threatened the known 10 country blocks. currency.
BRICS leaders have had the potential in the past, but such currencies are not ongoing.
Still, Trump denounced prospects in a question-and-answer session with reporters, accusing BRICS leaders of hoping they would “play a game with dollars.”
“If the transaction is done, it’ll be at least 100% tariffs,” Trump said.
The US President frequently uses tariffs as a means of enforcing other countries and acting in line with his priorities.
This includes proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada, two of the largest and closest trading partners of the United States. In November, after his re-election, Trump announced that he had planned to impose a 25% tariff on both countries to force them to strengthen security along the US border.
Economists and politicians warned of the impact of these tariffs on the economies of all countries involved.
“I want to talk directly with Americans,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on February 1.
“Taxes on Canada could put your job at risk and shut down American car assembly plants and other manufacturing facilities. They could even say that they would be able to eat at grocery stores or gas at pumps. We will increase costs for that.”
Shortly after that statement, Mexico and Canada struck out deals with the Trump team to delay tariffs until March in exchange for concessions like an increase in the number of Mexican National Guard at the US southern border.
Still, Trudeau and other critics call it a tariff outlook for violations of free trade agreements they struck, including the US-Mexico-Canada agreement negotiated during Trump’s first term.
Also, during Trump’s first term, Congress voted to expand its permanent normal trade ties with China.
That decision, and the general free trade agreement, have been criticized by politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders, and these policies have led businesses to move factories to lower wage countries, and unionization rights and They claim it made it easier to reduce environmental protection.
Trump is also critical of free trade transactions, but he refused to pursue Left priorities, such as promoting the right to collective bargaining for workers.
Tariffs can also be used to protect domestic sectors from foreign competition, but economists said the strategy is more typical of countries that work to drive domestic industries off the ground.
They also warned that the sudden imposing of tariffs after decades of economic integration between allies could lead to rising prices for consumers.
Trump has campaigned to lower his living expenses and has since warned that there may be “pain” for consumers as a result of tariffs.
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