President-elect Donald Trump is contemplating a revised plan that would maintain tariffs on all nations but would focus on a specific set of goods and services, as per a report by The Washington Post. This new tariff strategy is expected to be less potent than Trump’s previous proposals but would still bring significant changes to global trade, according to sources familiar with Trump’s views cited by the newspaper.
Trump, however, refuted the report in a post on Truth Social, stating, “The story in the Washington Post, quoting so-called anonymous sources, which don’t exist, incorrectly states that my tariff policy will be pared back. That is wrong.”
There are concerns that the new president’s insistence on implementing universal tariffs of 10% or 20% and singling out China and Mexico could lead to a surge in inflation. While tariffs during Trump’s first term had minimal impact on broad price increases and were retained when Joe Biden assumed office, economists fear that the current circumstances may result in a more significant tariff effect.
The report by The Washington Post mentioned that the specific sectors that would be impacted by the proposed tariffs are still uncertain, although initial discussions have considered industrial metals, medical supplies, and energy.
The United States is facing a monthly trade deficit of $74 billion, which escalated during the Covid pandemic.
