President Donald Trump has kept everyone guessing regarding the extent of the tariffs he is expected to unveil Wednesday, but the message from the White House is consistent: If you do business in the U.S., you won’t need to pay anything.
Trump has referred to Wednesday as “Liberation Day” because the U.S. no longer will be taken advantage of through unfair trade imbalances with other countries. He has scheduled a “Make America Wealthy Again” news conference for 4 p.m. ET in the Rose Garden at the White House.
“I don’t want to get ahead of the president,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday. “This is obviously a very big day. He’s with his trade and tariff team right now, perfecting it to make sure this is a perfect deal for the American people and the American worker, and you will all find out in about 24 hours from now.
“A tariff will be attached on these foreign nations, these foreign companies, and if they want to be absolved of that tariff, then they can come here to the United States of America to do business, bring their jobs here.”
Some of the options the administration has been debating in recent weeks include:
- A 20% flat tariff rate on all imports, which officials said could raise more than $6 trillion in revenue, according to ABC News.
- Reciprocal tariffs on barriers countries impose on U.S. products. Countries that strike deals with the U.S. won’t be hit with tariffs.
- A middle-ground approach that could include targeting a swath of countries with lower duties, while singling out a subset for higher rates, which could be individualized or imposed as a group, according to The Wall Street Journal. The administration previously considered plans for three tiers of tariffs — low, medium, and high — before abandoning that plan in favor of individualized rates.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett reportedly said Sunday that there are 15 countries “that we have massive, massive trade deficits with,” but that Trump will ultimately decide how many countries will be subject to new tariffs Wednesday.
Multiple nations run large annual trade surpluses with the U.S., including Germany, Ireland and Italy, as well as Vietnam, Japan, and Taiwan.
“What you’re going to be seeing over the next couple of days will be very inspiring to a lot of people,” Trump told reporters Tuesday at the Oval Office. “A lot of auto plants being built in a certain country – I don’t want to mention the country because we get along great with the country – but those plants aren’t being built there anymore, they gave them up yesterday and the day before. They are building them all now in the United States.”
Last week, Trump announced a 25% tariff on all auto imports, which is set to begin Thursday, and 25% worldwide tariffs on steel and aluminum took effect in mid-March. China was hit in March by additional 20% tariffs on all goods, triggering retaliatory duties from Beijing. The European Union has unveiled its own measures to start sometime this month.
Trump also has imposed tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico as a means of pressuring them to clamp down on fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration.
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