WhatsAppPresident Donald Trump vowed to impose reciprocal taxes on nations who tax U.S. imports in an effort to reverse the U.S. trade deficit.
When a country Taxes our products coming in at, say, 50%, and we Tax the same product coming into our country at ZERO, not fair or smart. We will soon be starting RECIPROCAL TAXES so that we will charge the same thing as they charge us. $800 Billion Trade Deficit-have no choice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 2, 2018
Trump’s economic nationalist announcement comes just a day after he said he will impose 20 percent tariffs on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum. The concept of reciprocal trade has long been a central campaign promise for Trump.
“I want reciprocal,” he told CNBC in a late January interview. “If they’re going to charge us 100 percent for a motorcycle, it should be 100 percent the other way.”
“When you use the word ‘reciprocal’ everybody understands that. If they do it to you, you do it to them and everybody understands it.”
The President doubled down in a mid-February meeting with infrastructure leaders saying “we cannot continue to let people come into our country and rob us blind and charge us tremendous tariffs and taxes and we charge them nothing.”
