Trump has rocked global stock markets, alarmed corporate executives and economists, and sparked heated disputes with the US’s largest trading partners by announcing and delaying plans to impose tariffs on foreign imports multiple times since taking office.
No details of Wednesday’s plans have been revealed ahead of the announcement. The president is scheduled to speak at 4pm ET. White House officials state that the most extensive overhaul of US trade policy will take immediate effect.
Trump has made it clear that he hopes to achieve several goals through his tariffs: bring manufacturing back to the US, counter what he considers to be unfair trade practices by other countries, increase tax revenue and incentivize measures to combat migration and drug trafficking.
Despite the chaotic implementation of his tariffs, with numerous rollbacks, delays and vague promises yet to materialize, the threats have strained relations with the US’s key trading partners. Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, referred to them as “unjustified” and vowed to retaliate. In response, the European Union announced that it has a “strong plan” to retaliate.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, stated that Trump was spending Tuesday “perfecting” the trade plan. “He is with his trade and tariff team right now, perfecting it to ensure this is an ideal deal for the American people and the American worker,” said Leavitt.
In preparation for the declaration, Trump endorsed the concept of levying so-called reciprocal tariffs, where the US would tax imports at the same rates that a foreign country taxes US exports. Notably, Trump has mentioned countries including South Korea, Brazil and India, as well as the EU, as potential objectives for reciprocal tariffs.
Trump told NBC, “The world has been taking advantage of the United States over the last 40 years and beyond. All we’re doing is striving to attain fairness.”
Additionally, Trump is considering a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada, two of the US’s largest trading partners, as a means to compel the nations to staunch immigration and drug trafficking into the US. In early March, after negotiations with the leaders of both countries, Trump delayed the start of the tariffs for the second time.
According to reports, Trump’s advisors are also proposing a 20% tariff on all imports across the board, which is more in line with the campaign promises made by Trump.
Any tariffs announced would be in addition to those that Trump has already imposed: an extra 20% tariff on all Chinese imports and a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports. There is also a 10% tariff on energy imports from Canada.
Additionally in March, Trump announced a 25% tariff on all imported vehicles and, at a later time, imported auto parts, which will start taking effect on Thursday.
The implementation of these tariff projects have led to sell-offs in the stock market and are unpopular with Americans, as indicated by polls. There is also internal conflict within the White House over how far and wide the tariffs should extend, contributing to uncertainty surrounding the extent of the tariffs.
Recent reporting from Politico suggests that some within the White House view the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, as the most aggressive regarding tariffs, advocating for cross-the-board measures. Meanwhile, treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and trade adviser Peter Navarro are both less keen on executive tariffs.
Nonetheless, all conflict within the White House has mostly been internal, as Trump and his cabinet have spent the last few weeks presenting the tariffs as beneficial for the US economy, despite the downward trend of the US stock market and plummeting consumer and business sentiments.
On Monday, which marked the end of the first quarter of 2025, two out of three major stock exchanges experienced their worst quarter in over two years amid the turmoil of Trump’s trade wars. In March, consumer confidence declined to its lowest level in over four years.
Economists at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and other banks have revised their forecasts for US economic growth to be lower and have identified an increased likelihood of a recession.
Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, commented on Bloomberg News that this is “the most significant shift in confidence that I can recall, aside from when Covid hit.” “It is conceivable that the impact to confidence could be more substantial than the tariffs themselves,” he said.
The Trump administration has argued that the decline in confidence pertains to the uncertainty of trade policy, not the impact of the tariffs. However, economists counter that the impact of the tariffs will add another layer of uncertainty, potentially resulting in higher prices as American businesses, which will bear the cost of tariffs on imports, pass this cost down to consumers.
“CEOs consistently state their intention to raise prices,” Alex Jacquez, CEO of the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive thinktank and advocacy group, told reporters on Tuesday. “What the major retailers and companies who might be affected by tariffs are already planning to do … is to transfer these costs to consumers as much as they possibly can.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/02/trump-new-tariffs-liberation-day
