Washington: After weeks of White House hype and public anxiety, President Donald Trump is set on Wednesday to announce a barrage of self-described reciprocal tariffs on friend and foe alike.
The new tariffs, coming on what Trump has called “Liberation Day,” are a bid to boost US manufacturing and punish other countries for what he says are years of unfair trade practices.
But by most economists’ assessments, the move threatens to plunge the economy into a downturn and upend decades-old alliances.
The White House is exuding confidence despite the political and financial gamble.
“April 2, 2025, will go down as one of the most important days in modern American history,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. She said the new tariffs would take effect immediately.
Details of Trump’s tariff plans were unclear hours before the president’s scheduled afternoon speech. The S&P 500 stock index sold off slightly in morning trading as investors hope to have more certainty about his agenda.
The tariffs are expected to follow similar recent announcements of 25 per cent taxes on auto imports; levies against China, Canada and Mexico; and expanded trade penalties on steel and aluminum.
Trump has also imposed tariffs on countries that import oil from Venezuela and he plans separate import taxes on pharmaceutical drugs, lumber, copper and computer chips.
None of the warning signs about a falling stock market or consumer sentiment turning morose has caused the administration to publicly second-guess its strategy.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has suggested the new tariffs would raise USD 600 billion annually, which would be the largest tax increase since World War II.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers the tariffs would be capped and could be negotiated downward by other countries, according to the office of Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla.
Importers would likely pass along some of the cost of the taxes on to consumers. The Budget Lab at Yale University estimates that a 20 per cent universal tariff would cost the average household an additional USD 3,400 to USD 4,200.
The Republican administration’s premise is that manufacturers will quickly increase domestic production and create factory jobs.
Based on the possibility of broad 20 per cent tariffs that have been floated by some White House aides, most analyses see an economy tarnished by higher prices and stagnation.
US economic growth, as measured by gross domestic product, would be roughly a percentage point lower, and clothing, oil, automobiles, housing, groceries and even insurance would cost more, the Budget Lab analysis found.
Trump would be applying these tariffs on his own; he has ways of doing so without congressional approval. That makes it easy for Democratic lawmakers and policymakers to criticise the administration if the uncertainty expressed by businesses and declining consumer sentiment are signs of trouble to come.
Heather Boushey, a member of the Biden White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, noted that the less aggressive tariffs Trump imposed during his first term failed to stir the manufacturing renaissance he promised voters.
“We are not seeing indications of the boom that the president promised,” Boushey said. “It’s a failed strategy.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the tariffs were a way for Trump to raise revenues in order to pay for his planned extensions of income tax cuts that disproportionately favour millionaires and billionaires.
“Almost everything they do, including tariffs, it seems to me, is aimed at getting those tax cuts for the wealthy,” Schumer said Tuesday.
Even Republicans who trust Trump’s instincts have acknowledged that the tariffs could disrupt an economy with an otherwise healthy 4.1 per cent unemployment rate.
“We’ll see how it all develops,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “It may be rocky in the beginning. But I think that this will make sense for Americans and help all Americans.”
Longtime trading partners are preparing their own countermeasures. Canada has imposed some in response to the 25 per cent tariffs that Trump tied to the trafficking of fentanyl. The European Union, in response to the steel and aluminum tariffs, put taxes on 26 billion euros’ worth (USD 28 billion) of US goods, including on bourbon, which prompted Trump to threaten a 200 per cent tariff on European alcohol.
Many allies feel they have been reluctantly drawn into a confrontation by Trump, who routinely says America’s friends and foes have essentially ripped off the United States with a mix of tariffs and other trade barriers.
The flip side is that Americans also have the incomes to choose to buy designer gowns by French fashion houses and autos from German manufacturers, whereas World Bank data show the EU has lower incomes per capita than the US.
“Europe has not started this confrontation,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “We do not necessarily want to retaliate but, if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it.”
Italy’s premier, Giorgia Meloni, on Wednesday reiterated her call to avoid an EU-US trade war, saying it would harm both sides and would have “heavy” consequences for her country’s economy.
Because Trump has hyped his tariffs without providing specifics, he has provided a deeper sense of uncertainty for the world, a sign that the economic slowdown could possibly extend beyond US borders to other nations that would see one person to blame.
Ray Sparnaay, general manager of JE Fixture & Tool, a Canadian tool and die business that sits across the Detroit River, said the uncertainty has crushed his company’s ability to make plans.
“There’s going to be tariffs implemented. We just don’t know at this point,” he said Monday. “That’s one of the biggest problems we’ve had probably the last — well, since November — is the uncertainty. It’s basically slowed all of our quoting processes, business that we hope to secure has been stalled.”
Leavitt is among three administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First and Fifth Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
