Trump announces “reciprocal tariffs” on US trading partners

US President Trump signed a memorandum requiring relevant departments to determine “reciprocal tariffs” with each foreign trading partner. According to reports, Trump said when signing the memorandum in the Oval Office of the White House that day, “For the sake of fairness, I have decided to impose reciprocal tariffs, which means that no matter how much tariffs other countries impose on the United States, we will also impose the same tariffs on them, no more and no less.” The memorandum stated that the US policy is to “reduce the large and persistent trade deficit in goods” and address “other unfair and unbalanced trade issues” with foreign trading partners. The memorandum did not specify the time for the imposition of “reciprocal tariffs.” It was previously reported that on February 10, local time, US President Trump signed a document announcing a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imported into the United States, and claimed that so-called “reciprocal tariffs” would be imposed on products such as chips, automobiles, and medicines. The US move was opposed by US allies such as Canada, Germany, and Japan. These countries believe that the above-mentioned tariff measures will undermine the multilateral trading system and hinder the development of the world economy, and both the United States and its trading partners will suffer huge losses as a result.