President Donald Trump signed the memorandum on Thursday, announcing that he would introduce a plan to impose mutual tariffs on all countries with US export tariffs.
Trump discussed the memorandum. The memorandum states that it will introduce “fair and mutual planning.” The move came hours before he was scheduled to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“In trade, for fair purposes, I have decided to charge mutual tariffs, Trump said in his oval office.
“In other words, they charge us taxes or duties and we charge them the exact same taxes or duties,” he added.
Trump added that in other countries, he will charge “very many” duties and taxes on American goods at “almost all” duties.
“But those days are over,” he added.
Note the note itself:
It is the US policy to reduce the large and sustainable annual trade deficit of goods and address other unfair and unbalanced aspects of trade with foreign trade partners. We will pursue this policy and introduce “fair and mutual planning” (plan). Under this plan, my administration will strive fiercely to counter incompatible trading contracts with trading partners by determining what constitutes mutual tariffs on each foreign trading partner.
A White House fact sheet in the memo reviewed by Breitbart News stated, “The plan puts American workers first, improving competitiveness in all sectors of the industry, reducing trade deficits, and economic and national security. It says it will strengthen the
The administration provided several examples of trade imbalances. For example, Brazil charges 18% tariffs on ethanol imported from the US, while the US has a 2.5% tariff on ethanol imports, indicating a significant gap with Brazil in this respect.
The document also points to an imbalance with India.
“The US average applied tariffs on the most favorable countries (MFN) on agricultural products. However, the average MFN tariff in India is 39%. India also charges 100% tariffs on US motorcycles. However, we only charge 2.4% tariffs on motorcycles in India,” the fact sheet states.
On the October campaign trail, Trump said, “The most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariffs,” and used tariffs in the first weeks of his administration to make headlines. There was a pause after Trump implemented the 25% tariffs he placed on Canada and Mexico earlier this month, taking steps to increase security at the borders he shares with the United States.
Vice President JD Vance detailed four different purposes regarding tariffs in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News at West Wing Office last week.
“My friend talks about how tariffs actually achieved four things,” Vance elaborated. “They can be used as diplomatic leverage. It's the number one. Second: They can make money. Number 3: They can re-align the industry and re-shore. And number 4: They can We can help us build economic relationships because if you are putting tariffs on one country, you are not or not necessarily putting tariffs on another country.” Vance said
“And it's really interesting that for 180 years, America has used tariffs, sometimes selectively, and sometimes more aggressively, making America the richest, most prosperous, and most powerful country. But it seems to be the whole of the last 50 years. Smell. Why? Again, it's bias towards inaction and bias towards behavior,” he added.
