WASHINGTON, Feb 13 — United States (US) President Donald Trump said he plans to unveil reciprocal tariffs on Thursday afternoon but gave no details about his latest tariff plan, which could take aim at every country that charges duties on US imports.
"Today is the big one: reciprocal tariffs," he wrote on his social media platform.
Trump later posted he would detail the latest in a barrage of tariffs on imports to the US he has unveiled since taking office last month in a press conference at 1pm (1800 GMT).
That will come a few hours ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's White House visit. Modi, who is scheduled to arrive at 4pm (2100 GMT), oversees a government that imposes the highest tariffs on US exports of any major US trading partner.
The Republican president's latest round of market-rattling tariffs has ratcheted up fears of a widening global trade war and threatened to accelerate US inflation.
Trump, who took office in January 20, has already announced tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports beginning on March 12, imposed 10 per cent tariffs on goods from China, and imposed a 30-day hold on tariffs on goods from neighboring Canada and Mexico.
His trade advisers were finalising plans on Wednesday for the reciprocal tariffs the US President has vowed to impose on every country that charges duties on US imports, ratcheting up fears of a widening global trade war.
On Monday, Trump said he was also looking at separate tariffs on cars, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals.
Trade experts say structuring the reciprocal tariffs that Trump wants poses big challenges for his team, which may explain why the latest duties were not announced on Tuesday.
Center for Strategic and International Studies senior fellow William Reinsch said that Trump officials could opt for a more easily implemented flat 10 per cent or 20 per cent tariff rate, or a messier approach that would require separate tariff schedules matching US tariffs to each other country's rates.
Accounting firm BDO International's US division's trade specialist and principal Damon Pike said the reciprocal tariffs that Trump envisioned would result in a monumental undertaking, given that each of the 186 members of the World Customs Organisation had different duty rates.
"At the international level, there is something like 5,000 different descriptions at the six-digit (product subheading) level, so 5,000 times 186 nations.
"It is almost an artificial intelligence project," he said.
Experts say Trump could turn to several statutes, including the Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which would only allow a flat rate maximum of 15 per cent for six months, or Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which provides authority to act against trade discrimination that disadvantages US commerce, but has never been used.
Trump also could use the same International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) used to justify the tariffs imposed on China and pending for Canada and Mexico.
"Absent IEEPA, there would need to be some kind of agency action first before any trade remedy tariffs can be imposed … but everything seems to be on the fast track," Pike said, adding that normally tariffs would be done by Congress.
Reinsch said imposing reciprocal tariff also ceded control of the US tariff schedule to other countries, following whichever tariff rate they set, and could lead to counterproductive results.
"For example, if Colombia has a high tariff on coffee in order to protect its industry, we would put a high tariff on Colombian coffee to match theirs, even though we do not grow coffee. The only people hurt would be US consumers," he said.
— Reuters
