Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Trump's ides of unfair trade deals have been more debunked than not. You must have read that, but it doesn't jibe with your 'defend Trump trade policy' does it. And some countries had higher import tariffs than America did, but not all, yet Trump has slapped a cross the board 10% tariff on. And some countries had lower tariffs on some goods than the US itself had. See:

But, broadly speaking, it is legitimate for Trump to point out that some countries have a higher average tariff on imports than America's.

And those tariffs push up the cost of many American exports to those countries, which might be said to disadvantage US exporters relative to exporters in those countries selling into the US.

[bar graph]

However, whether this amounts to unfair trade that serves to harm the US is not clear cut.
Most economists judge that the costs of import tariffs are, ultimately, borne by households in the country
that imposes them because they can mean that imported goods become more expensive.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjw4epl1994o

And there are WTO rules: How might a reciprocal tariff work?

On 10 February, Trump suggested it could mean the US imposing the same average external tariff on imports from each individual nation as those countries impose.

He told reporters: "If they charge us, we charge them. If they're at 25, we're at 25. If they're at 10, we're at 10."

This would likely break the MFN rules of the WTO, which require a nation to impose the same tariff on particular goods, regardless of where they came from.

If the US imposed, say, a tariff of 9.4% on all goods coming from Vietnam but 3.8% on all goods coming from the UK (the same as their own average external tariffs) that would be a breach of the rules.

If the US could show the targeted country was already itself breaching the organisation's rules in some way it might be able to claim that specific retaliatory tariffs against that country are justified under WTO rules.
[...]
Could US tariffs actually come down?

If Trump were serious about exactly matching individual tariffs from other nations it could also, in theory, require the US to lower some tariffs, not to raise them.

The US has higher tariffs on certain agricultural products than some of its trading partners.

For instance, the US currently imposes effective tariffs on many milk imports of more than 10%. But New Zealand, a major global milk producer, has 0% tariffs on its dairy imports.

The US milk tariffs are designed to protect US dairy farmers, including many in the swing state of Wisconsin, and lowering the tariff for milk exporters from New Zealand would likely face political resistance from politicians from that state.

Similarly, a genuinely reciprocal US tariff regime based on individual goods would pose challenges for the US automotive industry.

The US imposes a 25% tariff on imported trucks, including from the EU.

But the EU's own tariff on imported trucks, including from the US, is only 10%.

So a US reciprocal tariff with the EU on imported trucks would, in theory, mean the US lowering its tariff here.

While a reciprocal tariff on EU cars might be welcomed by American automakers, a reciprocal tariff on EU trucks might not be.

This could mean nations with higher average external tariffs than the US would be penalising their own consumers rather than Americans.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjw4epl1994o

USA had/has a trade surplus with Australia yet Trump wanted to go after our pharmaceutical benefits scheme. And Brazil, 50% tariffs proposed because Trump thinks their judicial system is being unfair to his like-minded authoritarian friend Bolsonaro.

That 's wielding a big stick just because you have it.