TMTPOST -- The White House confirmed on Monday U.S. President Donald Trump will announce details of reciprocal tariffs, his most sweeping tariff plan so far, on Wednesday, April 2.
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Credit：China Central Television
In his first event from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Trump will unveil the reciprocal tariff plan featuring country-based levies and the full cabinet will be present there, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Leavitt told reporters all of members of Trump’s “brilliant team of trade advisers”, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, trade adviser Peter Navarro, senior aide Stephen Miller and Vice President JD Vance, have proposed their plans on how to apply the new tariffs, and it’s the president’s decision to make.
Trump has described April 2 as "Liberation Day" as he touts the new reciprocal tariffs on a wide range of imported goods that his administration plans to unveil on that day. Leavitt on Monday reiterated significance of the so-called Liberation Day.
“Wednesday, it will be Liberation Day in America, as President Trump has so proudly dubbed it,” Leavitt said. “The President will be announcing a tariff plan that will roll back the unfair trade practices that have been ripping off our country for decades. He’s doing this in the best interest of the American worker.”
Leavitt declined to provide more details about the upcoming reciprocal tariffs, such as which countries would be subject to these duties and the related tariff rates. But she noted there are “no exemptions at this time” when asked about whether lower tariffs would be applied to products used by American farmers.
Leavitt also played down the effect of the reciprocal tariff agenda that the Trump administration has repeated has had on the stock market. The three-month period ended Monday saw U.S. stock benchmark S&P 500 index dropped around 4.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dived 10.4%, both setting their biggest quarterly losses since the second quarter of 2022.
The Wall Street Journal on Sunday cited people familiar with the conversations that Trump these days has pushed his team to be more aggressive on the tariff plan, and encouraged them to develop plans with higher tariff rates on a broader set of countries. That reported stance, if it is true, is clearly a U turn on tariffs that are set to kick off on April 2.
Trump said Sunday night that he would target essentially all U.S. trading partners, while claiming that his tariffs would be “far more generous” than what other countries charge the United States. The later part echoed his suggestions last week that the new tariffs that he will impose on some countries could be lower than that hit others. Trump on March 24 implied a number of countries may face watered-down reciprocal tariffs while new tariffs on different industries are on the horizon.
"I may give a lot of countries breaks,” Trump told reporters when referring reciprocal tariffs at White House a week ago ” It’s reciprocal, but we might be even nicer than that. We may take less than what they're charging because they've charged us so much, I don't think they could take it.”
Trump on March 24 also suggested he will move forward tariffs on a wide range of industries on top of those on steel and aluminum. “We’ll be announcing cars very shortly,” Trump said in a Cabinet meeting, adding that levies on pharmaceuticals would be announced “at some point”. “So we’ll be announcing some of these things in the very near future, not the long future, the very near future,” Trump said. When pressed on whether the tariffs on more industries will also enter effect on April 2, the president said “not all tariffs are included that day.”
Leavitt on Monday said Trump is still committed to implementing sectoral duties but that they were not the focus of the April 2 event.
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