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LAST UPDATE | 13 Feb
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump signed a memorandum this afternoon calling for “fair and reciprocal” trade tariffs on all major US trading partners, including longtime allies.
Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump insisted that its new tariffs would level the playing field between US manufacturers and foreign competitors, telling reporters that US allies were often “worse than our enemies” on trade.
In particular, he singled out the European Union for being “absolutely brutal” in its trade ties with Washington.
The levies would be tailored to each US trading partner and consider the tariffs they impose on American goods, alongside taxes seen as “discriminatory,” such as value-added taxes (VATs), a White House official said.
“I’ve decided, for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America,” Trump said.
“In almost all cases, they’re charging us vastly more than we charge them but those days are over.”
“We want a level playing field for all American workers,” Trump added.
If implemented, it’s likely that these new tariffs will be paid by American consumers and businesses either directly or in the form of higher prices.
Trade in goods between Europe and the United States nearly totalled $1.3 trillion last year, with the United States exporting $267 billion less than it imports, according to the Census Bureau.
Trump promised that the US trade representative commerce secretary and other officials will propose remedies on a country-by-country basis.
The White House will start by examining economies with which the United States has its biggest deficits or “most egregious issues,” the White House official added.
“This should be a matter of weeks, in a few months, but not much longer than that,” the official said.
“Major exporting nations of the world attack our markets with punishing tariffs and even more punishing non-tariff barriers,” Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro told reporters ahead of the President’s remarks this afternoon.
The Republican president’s latest round of market-rattling tariffs has ratcheted up fears of a widening global trade war and threatened to accelerate US inflation.
Trump, who took office just 24 days ago, has already announced tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports beginning on 12 March, imposed 10% tariffs on goods from China, and imposed a 30-day hold on tariffs on goods from neighbouring Canada and Mexico.
Additional reporting from AFP.
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