In a speech of almost an hour in the Rosaleda of the White House, the president reported that the minimum tariff for the importations to the US will be 10%.
Trump – who also announced a 25% tariff for all cars manufactured abroad – showed a large poster with the first page of the list of countries under the title “Reciprocal tariffs”, where the name of each country was shown.
A second column with figures was entitled “Tariffs collected to the US including coins and barriers to trade.” The Government did not explain what were the calculations to determine that percentage in each case.
And a third column showed percentages under the apigraph “reciprocal reciprocal tariffs of US discount.”
Trump said most countries have missed the US badly, imposing disproportionate tariffs on US imports, which he compares with “cheating.”
The president said that the US will charge other countries “approximately half” of what they charge his country.
“Therefore, tariffs will not be totally reciprocal. It could have done it, yes, but it would have been difficult for many countries,” Trump said.
“We didn’t want to do something like that,” he added.
In the list, all Latin American countries except Cuba and Mexico, the latter country with which the US has a free trade treaty in which Canada also participates and is known as T-MEC.
The White House later informed that for Mexico and Canada, the previous executive orders remain in force, which means that the products included in the Free Trade Agreement “will continue to be subject to a 0%tariff, those that do not comply, to a 25%tariff, and the energy and potassa products that do not comply, to a 10%tariff.”
He added that, in the event that these current orders are repealed, “the products that meet the T-MEC will continue to receive preferential treatment, while those who do not comply will be subject to a 12%reciprocal tariff.”
With Cuba, the US maintains an embargo for which he does not trade with the island.
Tariffs for Latin America
From the rest of the countries in the region, the vast majority received the minimum tariff set by Trump: 10%.
These countries are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
The exception are Nicaragua, with 18%, and Venezuela, with 15%.
The main commercial markets of the world, China and the European Union, received tariffs of 34% and 20%, respectively.
“We have to start taking care of our country already,” Trump said.
When describing its panorama of a renewed American economy driven by wide tariffs, he said that the manufacturing plants “empty, dead” and the “factories that are collapsing” will be replaced by new ones.
“Totally new, the best in the world,” he continued.
The 10% tariffs will govern as of April 5 and the highest rates on the 9 of the same month.
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