Posted on April 16, 2025 at 06:59. / Modified April 16, 2025 at 20:04.
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The Trump administration used a simple formula to calculate the customs duties imposed in early April on more than 185 countries, before being suspended for most of them. Take the trade deficit between the United States and a given country, divide it by the total value of goods imported from this country, then divide the result by two-while fixing a minimum floor of 10%.
-This calculation method has stunned economists from around the world. Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize in economics, called her as “stupid” and “so full of mistakes that it is difficult to know where to start”. Devoid of any economic basis, this formula has aroused questions about its origin, some experts going so far as to suggest that it could have been generated by artificial intelligence.
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