April 2 Set as Date for Unveiling of Trump's Reciprocal Tariffs

The Trump Administration is planning to unveil its new trade policy centred around reciprocal tariffs – based on assessments of each trading partner’s policies – on April 2.

While many of America’s trading partners in Asia are gritting their teeth over the tariff level they will face from next month, Trump appears to see the date as the start of a long overdue act of commercial redemption, despite the fact many economists think it’s a mad and outdated policy that could backfire terribly by forcing up inflation and creating bitter trade wars.

“April 2 is a liberating day for our country,” Trump was quoted as telling reporters on Air Force One on Sunday evening, according to a report by The Hill, adding that it is a chance to “start taking back some of the vast wealth that has been taken from us.”

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In February, Trump announced his plan for the US to implement reciprocal tariffs on countries that tax or limit markets for American goods.

“On trade, I have decided for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff — meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them no more, no less. In other words, they charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them the exact same tax or tariff. Very simple,” he said at the White House.

After doing this he noted in a post on Truth Social that: “If a country feels that the United States would be getting too high a Tariff, all they have to do is reduce or terminate their Tariff against us. There are no Tariffs if you manufacture or build your product in the United States.”

These broad reciprocal tariffs will be imposed on multiple trading partners – many countries in Asia, and come in addition to sector-specific levies, such as the 25% tariff imposed last week on the steel and aluminium sectors.

The US tariffs are being determined by the US Trade Representative’s Office and the Commerce Department, who will focus on trade levels plus trade practices deemed to be unfair, such as non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, unfair funding and labour suppression.

Focus on the ‘Dirty 15’

But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said this week that deals may be done with trading partners before and after April 2 because countries “are already reaching out to negotiate.”

“Going into April 2, some of our worst trading partners in terms of the way they treat us have already come to President Trump offering… substantial decreases in very unfair tariffs,” Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday.

“I’m optimistic that, [on] April 2, some of the tariffs may not have to go on because a deal is pre-negotiated,” he added, “or that once countries receive their reciprocal tariff number, that, right after that, they will come to us and want to negotiate it down.

“There’s a big group of countries where we have a small surplus, but we don’t do a lot of trading with them,” Bessent said.

“And then there’s what we would call kind of, ‘the dirty 15,’ and they have substantial tariffs,” he added, pointing out that “as important as a tariff or some of these non-tariff barriers” are, where they do testing or have domestic production “bear no resemblance to safety or anything that we do to their products.”

The identity of the ‘dirty 15’ countries is not known, but there is already speculation that South Korea is one in this sensitive bracket, as the new president noted, in his recent address to Congress, that it taxed US goods at levels four times higher than what the US imposes on Korean exports.

Other possible countries in that bracket could include Vietnam, India, European countries with persistent trade deficits, Brazil (which takes US ethanol at 18%), and, of course, China, which had a trade deficit of over $295 billion last year.

However, leaders of some of these countries have reached out and expressed a desire to reach trade agreements to try to prevent punitive levies imposed on their exports.

Indian PM Narendra Modi has already visited Washington DC, while Vietnamese officials flew in last week to sign deals worth billions of dollars.

And there is now speculation that China’s President Xi Jinping may undertake a trip to the US in coming weeks.

Bitter debate and uncertainty

Trump’s imposing bluster and seemingly erratic flip-flops on tariffs with Canada and angry warnings over threats of retaliatory trade embargoes – have added to the tension to the dramatic changes Trump is undertaking, with protests sparked also by Elon Musk’s brutal downsizing of the Federal government in a bid to slash wasteful spending.

Barely a day has gone by without some shocking announcement or legal challenge to the exodus of thousands of government personnel.

Trump’s denial of climate change and embrace of ‘beautiful clean coal’, along with his rejection of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals have astonished the world.

Critics have complained that in a bid to Make America Great Again, Trump is destroying some of the key things that made America great, with the gutting of USAID, dramatic downsizing of weather forecasters, and aid to global bodies such as the World Health Organisation.

Put together, this wave of changes have created bitter debate and uncertainty, with some fearing the cuts to USAID and other programmes carefully tailored and embraced by states in Asia and other regions are undermining global goodwill for America.

Investment in the US stock market has plunged amid increasing speculation of a government-induced recession. Thousands in Europe are allegedly boycotting US goods.

However, Bessent told Fox Business that America is transitioning away from unsustainable spending and focusing on “critical industries” – like steel and aluminum and manufacturing, while “the underlying economy is healthy.”

So much has happened in Trump’s first two months, it seems impossible to fathom where the world will be at the end of this year, let alone when his term in office ends.

It’s like being in a car with a drunk driver: You can only pray we all make it out alive.