Donald Trump unveiled a sweeping plan to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on America’s largest trading partners on Thursday, heralding greater disruption for the global economy.
In a broadside directed at US allies as well as adversaries, Trump directed his top trade advisers to come up with new tariffs on a “country-by-country” basis in retaliation against levies, regulations and subsidies deemed unfair by Washington.
White House officials and Trump warned that trading partners Brazil, India, Japan, Canada and the EU were at risk of being hit by the new tariffs.
However, an official said the administration would first examine the countries with which the US had the largest trade deficits, which would include Mexico and China, before imposing the new levies.
“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.”
Trump’s plan for “reciprocal” tariffs, which could be imposed as early as April 2, will accelerate efforts in capitals across the globe to launch negotiations with Washington to forestall the implementation of the levies.
His latest tariff plan was unveiled in a week in which he moved to transform the geopolitical landscape with a renewed push to end the war in Ukraine with calls to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
As he hosted Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, Trump criticised traditional US allies while seeming to extend an olive branch to strategic foes such as China and Russia. Trump even invited Russia to rejoin the G7 group of wealthy nations after it was suspended indefinitely in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea.
“It’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office. “All you talk about is Russia, and they should be sitting at the table. I think Putin would love to be back.”
Trump rattled European allies by setting up direct talks between Washington and Moscow in a bid to broker peace in Ukraine. Pete Hegseth. the US defence secretary, had already dismissed Ukraine’s ambitions to rejoin Nato and reclaim all the territory it held before Russia annexed Crimea.
Trump said he would include Kyiv in any negotiations with Putin over ending the war. But he added he would hold additional talks with both China and Russia over defence spending in a bid to lower America’s $850bn defence budget.
He said that he thought the US and China could have “a very good relationship”, adding: “I think that China is a very important player in the world, I think, [Beijing] can help us get this war over with Ukraine and Russia.”
Trump’s remarks are in stark contrast to those made by his top US military commander in the Indo-Pacific, who on Thursday dubbed China, Russia and North Korea an “emerging axis of autocracy”.
The president had particularly sharp words for the EU, describing the long-term US ally as “very nasty”. He criticised the bloc over its value added tax regime, digital services tax and efforts to curtail American tech companies in the courts.
“The European Union’s been very tough on our companies,” Trump said. “They sued Apple, they sued Google, they sued Facebook, they sued many other companies, and they’re American companies . . . The court system over there is not very good to our companies.”
During their meeting at the White House, Trump hailed Modi as a “very special man” and spoke of the “special bond” between India and the US.
But he also criticised Delhi for its high tariffs and announced measures to increase American oil and gas and defence sales to India with the aim of reducing the deficit, which surpassed $35bn last year.
Trump said he and Modi would begin “negotiations to address the long-running disparities that should have been taken care of over the last four years” with the goal of signing a trade agreement.
White House officials said they could use different legal powers to implement the levies, such as Section 301 of the Trade Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, to circumvent Congress.
Trump said he intended to issue further tariffs against cars, chips and pharmaceuticals “over and above” the reciprocal tariffs. He has already applied levies of 10 per cent on all Chinese imports, while tariffs of 25 per cent on all steel and aluminium imports are set to take effect next month.
Additional reporting from John Reed in Delhi