President Trump said he is ready to spread the trade war on Friday and will announce mutual tariffs in other countries next week.
Such measures would collect US claims for imports in a manner consistent with what other countries charge for American products.
Speaking to reporters before a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister in the White House, Trump said tariffs would restore fairness in relations and eliminate the US trade deficit.
Trump added that making trade more mutual, “I will ensure that we are treated equally with other countries. I don't want any more.”
It's the latest indication that Trump is willing to keep tariffs broad and stupid. He is also leviing an additional 10% tariff on all products from China, in addition to taxing hundreds of millions of dollars of goods in his first term.
Over the past week, the president has come within hours of impose sweep tariffs on America's biggest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, and says that those countries are sending drugs and immigrants to the United States. . He ultimately suspended these measures for 30 days after the countries offered him some concessions.
Trump had not said which countries would target with mutual tariffs. He said tariffs on Japan are an option if the US trade deficit with the country does not fall to zero. However, he also argued that by purchasing more oil and gas, it could eliminate a trade deficit of around $68 billion.
Earlier this week, Trump indicated he was looking at the European Union, saying that the Bullock was “undetected” to face tariffs and “quite soon.” Trump often criticized the European Union for charging higher tariffs on American cars that the US car is carrying on European cars and operating a trade surplus with the US.
Trump has raised proposals in both his first term and his 2024 campaign to make trade more mutual by matching the tariff rates other countries place on American products.
He also said he has recently planned to impose tariffs on a variety of important industries, including copper, steel, aluminum, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. On Friday, he also said tariffs on foreign cars “always are on the table.”
At a subsequent press conference with Isba on Friday, Trump said he prefers mutual tariffs on “flat” tariffs.
“I think that's the only fair way to do that,” Trump said.
Asked whether Japan would retaliate whether the US imposed tariffs on exports, Isba denied. “I can't answer the theoretical questions,” he said.
Also on Friday, the president signed an executive order temporarily returning some of his measures against China by allowing low-cost products from the country to enter US tariffs again.
The order reverses the decision Trump made last Saturday when he signed an order to eliminate so-called de Minimis treatments for products from China, at least for now. De Minimis regulations allow products under $800 to enter the United States without being subject to customs duties, resulting in less information being given to customs. Trump officials have said they have ended the exemption from China for goods as the administration provides conduits for fentanyl and materials to flow it into the US.
The brief exclusion of exemptions meant that hundreds of thousands of packages coming to the US every day from China suddenly became subject to tariffs and requirements for more information.
The rapid change has created confusion between retailers and shippers. Many sellers on the e-commerce platform were surprised. The US postal service temporarily suspended acceptance of packages from China on Wednesday, but said it would accept them again by Thursday morning.
In executive order on Friday, the president said that De Minimis treatments are still available for products from China for the time being, but the Secretary of Commerce said the system was “placed to be fully and widely used and handled.” If I notify him, it will be stopped.” Collect customs income. ”
Shipping companies such as FedEx and UPS have been doing stable business as a result of the De Minimis scale and have fought to maintain it. Frederick Smith, executive chairman of FedEx and founder of Federick Smith, visited the White House on Thursday for a meeting, according to Reuters. It is not clear who he met.
Timothy Brightville, a trade expert at law firm Wiley Lane, said the order “at least for now, the United States does not have a system that requires the collection of a huge and growing number of tariffs. He said he appears to have admitted. The minimum shipment from China every year.”
Brightbill said he expected that Customs and Border Protection, which handles imports, would make it a priority to ensure that these new tariffs could be collected immediately. “Both the administration and Congress want to fix this loophole,” he said.
Kim Glass, chief executive of the National Board of Textile Organizations, said that eliminating De Minimis would change the behaviour of companies by moving companies away from systems that ship millions of small packages. It would reduce the burden on customs and border security, she said.
“It's no longer economically meaningful for importers to import everything into small individual packages,” Glass said in an interview early Friday. “So, what does this do – this doesn't happen overnight, but it does – many packages go back to being transported via ships and cargo in large containers for the US market .Easier.”
Alan Rappeport and Jordyn Holman contributed the report.
