Trump’s new tariffs awaited, as EU vows united response, China threatens countermeasures

As with many Trump events, this one comes with props – in this case a chart brought out by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.

But besides the specifics of the tariffs, there has been little new material to Trump’s comments today.

His speech reminds me of those I heard – repeatedly – on the campaign trail last year, as well as here in the White House during his administration so far.

Some of his comments, for example, have focused on the previous administration of Joe Biden, whom he has repeatedly blamed for the state of the US economy.

For his supporters, today will likely be pointed to as an example of what the Trump team has termed “promises made, promises kept” and Trump’s vows to “put Americans first”.

Trump says that during his first term, he had been making plans to institute reciprocal tariffs.

But he notes that after a “bad election” in 2020, in which he lost to Joe Biden, he had a “monumental win” last November.

“This will be an entirely different country in a short period of time. The whole world will be talking about it,” he says.

He goes on to discuss the high prices of eggs, and claims that the steep rise is not his fault.

“I just got here,” he remembers saying shortly after taking office.

Trump says he has great respect for China and President Xi but they’ve been “taking tremendous advantage” of the US.

Other leaders take care of their countries, implementing large tariffs on US imports, Trump says, adding that the US is going to do the same.

“We have to start taking care of our country now,” he says.

As he paints his picture of a renewed American economy boosted by broad tariffs, he says “empty, dead” manufacturing plants and “factories falling down” will be replaced by new ones.

“Brand new, the best anywhere in the world.”

Trump now lists a number of companies he says are investing money in the US. He includes Apple which he says has committed to spending $500bn, and he also cites Nvidia, Johnson and Johnson and Meta.

The president says it represents a total of $6 trillion of investments.

“That’s going to be much higher by the end of the year.”

“There will never have been a transformation of a country like the transformation that’s already happening in the United States of America,” Trump continues, after noting that he’s been in office for only two months.

“It’s an incredible thing to watch.”

He claims that US workers and companies are greeting his tariff announcement with enthusiasm.

“There will be complaints from globalists, special interests and fake news,” he says, adding that all those critics have been wrong about US trade policy over the last 30 years.
Trump says that companies that build their products in the US will pay zero tariffs.

“There’s no tariff if you build your product right here in America,” Trump says.

The president says “soon” he will be getting calls from kings, queens and ambassadors looking for tariff exemptions.

His message to them is: “Terminate your own tariffs, drop your barriers, don’t manipulate your currencies.. and start buying tens of billions of dollars of American goods.”

Trump says other nations have treated the US “badly”, charging disproportionate tariffs on US imports that he likens to “cheating”.

In turn, the US will charge other countries “approximately half” of what they are charging the US.

“So, the tariffs will not be a full reciprocal. I could have done that, yes, but it would have been tough for a lot of countries,” Trump says.

“We didn’t want to do that.”

Trump has just announced a “minimum baseline tariff” of 10% on other countries to “help rebuild” the US economy.

It will come into effect on 5 April.

Trump is now holding up a large chart showing a table titled “Reciprocal Tariffs”, which compares tariffs imposed by other countries on the US versus Washington’s own levies.

It displays a 10% tariff on imports from UK and 20% on EU imports.

“They charge us, we charge them. How can anybody be upset?” he says.

Among others, he singles out China and the European Union. “They rip us off. It’s so sad to see. It’s so pathetic.”

“India,” he says, “very tough. Very, very tough.”

Trump continues, saying that US companies are unable to produce enough antibiotics.

“We import virtually all of our computers, phones, TVs and electronics,” he says.

He claims that a single shipyard in China is churning out more ships that all of America’s shipyards do each year.

The trade deficit represents “a national emergency that threatens our security and threatens our way of life”.

“For this reason, starting tomorrow the US will implement reciprocal tariffs on other nation.”

Trump says it’s not too late, and vows to make the US wealthy again.

“They’ve taken so much of our wealth away from us,” he says. “We’re not going to let that happen.”

Trump says the US can no longer afford to hold trade deficits with other countries, suggesting the US has been subsidising them for too long.

“We take care of countries all over the world,” he laments, and says it’s time the US took care of its own people.

Trump says that between the late 18th century and early 20th century the US was “proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been”.

“So wealthy in fact,” Trump continues, “we were collecting so much money so fast, we didn’t know what to do with it.”

Trump says that in 1913, income tax was placed on US citizens “for reasons unknown to mankind”.

“They established the income tax so that citizens, rather than foreign countries, would start paying the money necessary to run our government,” Trump says.

Mocking US trade partners, Trump says: “We want to send you our cars. We want to send you anything, but we won’t take anything you have.”

He complains that EU countries don’t want American poultry, and that Australia refuses to purchase American beef.

“They won’t take any of our beef. They don’t want it, they don’t want it to affect our farmers.”

Japan, South Korea and China “don’t want us to sell our rice there”, he adds.