April 2 was distinguished by what President Donald Trump described and managed as a “liberation day”, or to announce the “mutual” definitions in almost every country, ranging from a basic rate of up to 10 % to 50 %.
Trump claims that the proposed duties were direct responses to “customs tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of fraud” that other countries have enacted against the United States-for each CBS news – But this is not completely accurate. Instead, “mutual definitions” are based on the trade deficit of the United States with each country.
Specifically, the formula used by the Trump administration to calculate definitions for each country was as follows: the American trade deficit with the country, divided by the country’s exports to the United States.
What does that mean? A trade deficit occurs when the United States imports more than one country to export it to the aforementioned country. For example, the United States imports a large amount of computer chips and semi -conductors from Taiwan, but it does not export any product in particular to the island – which leads to a trade deficit of $ 74 billion with Taiwan. This deficit is not caused by any tariff or currency manipulation, but it is the natural result of global trade.
The same logic applies to China, one of the main exporters of the United States. In 2024, the United States imported $ 439.9 billion from China, according to CNNAnd he had a trade deficit of $ 295.4 billion with China. Divide the deficit on the value of Chinese imports gives about 67 %. Half, we get 34 %, which was a tariff on China listed at the Trams tariff table.
“Knowing how to calculate these rates has highlighted that they will be generally more severe for the countries on which American companies relied heavily in their supply chain.” “It is difficult to imagine how these definitions will not cause profitable margins for multinationals.”
Economists in the Trump administration mathematics are amazed.
“It is now clear that [Trump] Administration has been calculated mutual definitions without using customs tariff data. books Former Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Samarz. “This is for the economy of the essence of biology, astrology is astronomy, or that RFK believes that a science vaccine. Trump’s tariff policy is not logical even if you believe in a protective commercial economy.”
“This is * banana * the” mutual “White House tariff has nothing to do with the actual tariff barriers. It is equal to half of the commercial deficit (as a share of imports),” books Economist Justin Wolf. “This is crazy, indescribable.”
