United States President, Donald Trump, has tasked his economic team to devise plans for reciprocal tariffs on every country that taxes U.S. imports, raising the risk of a global trade war with American friends and foes.
“On trade, I have decided for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them. No more, no less,” Reuters quoted Trump to have told reporters.
Trump signed a memo ordering his team to start calculating duties to match those other countries charge and to counteract non-tariff barriers such as vehicle safety rules that exclude U.S. autos and value-added taxes that increase their cost.
The latest directive stopped short of imposing more tariffs, instead kicking off what could be weeks or months of investigation into the levies imposed on U.S. goods by other trading partners and then devising a response.
Wall Street is anxious further tariffs may accelerate U.S. inflation, prevent the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates and slow economic growth. The absence of further trade measures for now, drove global markets higher.