A summary of Trump’s so-called ‘liberation day’ tariff announcement
At a 4pm ET Rose Garden ceremony today, Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on US trade partners across the world.
Here’s a short summary of the key takeaways:
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The president announced sweeping tariffs of 10% to 49% on all goods imported from abroad. Those included a 34% tariff on goods from China, a 20% tariff on goods from the European Union and a 10% tariff on goods from the United Kingdom.
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He did not levy any tariffs on Canada or Mexico.
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Trump announced a 25% tariff on all foreign automakers.
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He told foreign leaders that want to avoid the tariffs: “Terminate your own tariffs, drop your barriers, don’t manipulate your currencies.”
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European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will make a statement responding to the tariffs at 5am CET tomorrow.
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Top Democrats have begun responding to the announcement, saying “the president is risking a recession”.
Key events
Economists dispute Donald Trump’s claim today that the United States is “kind” to only levy tariffs of half of what other countries charge the US.
The chart Trump showed at his Rose Garden ceremony this afternoon included tallies of the rates foreign countries charge the United States, but those calculations included “currency manipulation and trade barriers”. It’s unclear how the Trump administration calculated those percentages.
University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers says that the “reciprocal” tariffs Trump levied will give the United States “the highest tariff rates of any industrialized country. And it’s not even close.”
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In a post on BlueSky, Wolfers shared a graph showing the average tariff rates countries levied in 2022. The majority are in the 1% range. “The Trump proposal for 2025 will be literally off the scale of this graph,” he wrote.