Trump Says Likely to Impose 25% Tariffs on Autos, Drugs, Chips
President Donald Trump said he would likely impose tariffs on automobile, semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports of around 25%, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2.
“I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25%,” Trump told reporters Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about auto tariffs.
“It’ll be 25% and higher, and it’ll go very substantially higher over a course of a year,” the president said about drug imports.
Trump said he wanted to give companies “time to come in” before announcing new tariffs.
“When they come into the United States and they have their plant or factory here there is no tariff, so we want to give them a little bit of a chance,” the president said.
Trump has also threatened other streams of tariffs, all part of an effort to rebalance the US’s trading relationships across the globe. The president has long accused other countries of ripping off the US and views import duties as a way to bring industries back to America and collect more revenue. Many economists say they would raise consumer prices for Americans and stymie the fight against inflation.
The president has said he would apply “reciprocal” levies on a country-by-country basis as soon as April, though specifics are still being determined. He has also threatened duties on some of the US’s biggest trading partners, such as a 10% rate already applied to China and 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico that have been deferred until at least March 4. The measures would stack on top of one another, meaning that Mexican and Canadian producers in certain sectors could pay as many as three tariffs.
Altogether, Trump’s moves, if enacted, would remake supply chains and trade flows — and US prices. Tariffs are paid by importers and often passed onto consumers, though sometimes offset by price reductions abroad.
Source : Bloomberg
