United States President Donald Trump opened the trade war front on Monday, as proclaimed during his campaign, by promising to increase customs duties on products entering the country.
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“I will immediately begin reviewing our trade system to protect American families and workers,” said the 47e US President, just after taking the oath of office at the Capitol in Washington.
“Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will impose tariffs and taxes on foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” he continued.
His choice for Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, on Monday outlined a loophole for customs barriers for foreign companies.
“The only thing they can do is build factories in the United States and hire Americans with very good salaries,” he said from the stage of a large hall of the American capital where his supporters were gathered and where Donald Trump was expected at the end of the day.
One of the president’s main economic proposals concerns the establishment of 10% to 20% customs duties on all products entering the United States. He even raised the possibility that they could reach 60%, or even more, for those coming from China.
Mexico and United States
Yet theoretically protected by a free trade agreement signed during his first mandate, the Canadian and Mexican neighbors are not spared.
Donald Trump has threatened customs duties of 25% against them, if these countries do not curb the entry of drugs like fentanyl and illegal migrants into the United States.
-The euro zone, which exports more products to the United States than it imports, is also in the Republican’s sights.
The European Union is “ready to defend its economic interests” if necessary, European Commissioner for the Economy Valdis Dombrovskis assured Monday in Brussels. A potential trade conflict would have a “substantial economic cost for everyone, including the United States,” he added.
Donald Trump did not provide any additional information on this subject during his first speech as 47e president.
According to the Wall Street Journal On Monday, the American president would refrain from imposing new customs duties from the first day of his second term and could favor the launch of investigations into trade relations with China, Canada and Mexico as a prerequisite for future increases.
Riposte
These three countries being major suppliers to the United States, experts expect that an increase in customs duties will lead to a rebound in inflation, a prospect that Donald Trump and his teams dismiss.
American companies also expect retaliation from the countries concerned in the form of additional customs duties which would penalize their own exports.
Americans will pay a “Trump customs tax” if the president-elect increases customs duties on Canadian products, which would trigger “the biggest trade war between the two countries in decades,” the Canadian Minister of Affairs said on Friday. foreigners, Mélanie Joly, during a press conference in Washington.
Donald Trump also threatened the BRICS (10 countries, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) with 100% customs duties if they create a common currency that can compete with the dollar , a proposal that they never put forward.
One of Donald Trump’s most senior economic advisors, Stephen Moore, recently estimated in an interview with AFP that the increase in customs duties would be in fine painless for Americans thanks to the tax cuts planned at the same time by the new government.
