President Donald Trump signed a memo on Thursday that called for his administration to decide “corresponding to a mutual customs with regard to each foreign trading partner.”
“In other words, we will customize the mutual customs based on individual trade countries and it will depend on their profile,” said a senior official on a call with journalists who preview the action.
This means that the administration plans to impose on other countries that match the tasks they impose on US products. The senior official says this allows the United States to “adapt” the duty to each trading partner based on their actions.
Trump announced earlier customs in China, Mexico and Canada. While the 10% tariff rates on China have been imposed on, Trump kept the 25% duty on Canada and Mexico. Trump has also announced 25% duty on steel and aluminum expected to take effect next month.
Many economists warn customs rates are likely to raise prices of goods for consumers and aggravate inflation that already increased faster than expected in January.
Trump acknowledged that “prices could rise somewhat short term” as a result of customs when he took the journalists’ questions in the oval office. But he emphasized that Americans should expect the job numbers to rise.
“There may be some short -term disturbance, but in the long term, it goes until it will make our country a fortune,” he said.
President Donald Trump, along with trade secretary Howard Lutnick, delivers comments following the signing of a performing order for mutual tariffs in the Oval Office of the White House, February 13, 2025 in Washington.
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An official in the administration outlined five types of actions it will take into account when determining the mutual tariffs for trading partners.
They include tariffs imposed on American products; unreasonable, discriminatory or extraterratic taxes imposed by trading partners, including a value -added tax; costs for US companies, workers and consumers, including subsidies and burdens and regulatory requirements; Exchange rates; As well as any other practice that Ustr determines is an unreasonable restriction.
The most important players in this action will include trade secretary and US trade representative in consultation with the Treasury’s secretary and security secretary for the home country. Trump has nominated Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick to lead the trade department and lawyer Jamieson Greer to be the US Trade Representative.
Officials emphasized the benefit of tackling this on a case -by -case basis and said that it “opens the door for each country to basically correct the unreasonable commercial practice in which they engage.” But they also did not exclude to pursue a flat, global duty either in view of the “national emergence we have with regard to the trade deficit.”
Trade representative Jamison Greer together with the director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett and trade adviser Peter Navarro speaks after President Donald Trump signed a executive order for mutual tariffs in the White House, February 13, 2025 in Washington.
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Upon request for a timeline for when these tariffs may have been implemented, the administration’s official seemed to suggest that it would happen on a rolling basis, starting with countries that have the highest deficits in the US
“I think it will be done in what I have called in the past, in Trump Time, which means very fast must be a matter of weeks in a few months, but not much further than that. We are moving fast Here, “the official said.
Lutnick, who was in the oval office when Trump signed the memo, expanded more on the possible timeline.
“Our investigations should be complete by April 1st. So we give the president the opportunity to start on April 2nd if he wants to,” Lutnick said. “So I think we’re ready to go before April 1st. And we’ll hand it over to the president and he’ll make his decisions.”
The mutual tariffs could hit developing countries the most difficult – including India, Brazil and Southeast Asian countries.
There are many outstanding questions about the implementation of such tariffs.
One question is how Trump can continue to use these tariffs as a starting point for negotiations with world leaders. Officials said they hoped that the move would trigger discussions between nations and said the president would be willing to reduce tariffs if other countries do so too.
